Board of Health: October 10, 2023

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:04 We do not have the minutes. Is that correct? We do not. That is correct. Well, we busy doing the, uh, all those, so I

0:14 Very good reason. Thanks, Jenny.

0:27 Yes. Answer that question. We waiting for Jenny. I’m leaving. Are you? Hi. Good evening. You are just a social butterfly talking to everyone as you walk in. So’s fine. So take a seat and be social at this table right here. You sure? I guess

0:51 just the grilling seats.

0:54 You can pick any one of those three wonderful green chairs

0:59 in front of you, Madam Chair. Yeah, well, thanks.

1:04 I Big day you got at this morning. I thought I might’ve seen you today, but I just doing other things. Where, what do you mean? Were you meeting at, uh, Boston? You did Oh, oh a t l in New England. Oh, yeah. Oh, um, tomorrow night.

1:29 Um, so we asked you to come because you’re a newly elected state rep, and, um, we wanna hear from you and we also had a few questions that I gave you to prompt you to, to that in your remarks if you could and Oh, I did yesterday. I think, you know, just ask again. Yeah. Oh, I’ll come anytime. I’m learning all about solid waste in my new job.

2:03 You know, Charles, I do. Nice to see you. And you Joanne. Long time. And you know, Marty, our recorder. Marty, nice to meet you. You know, Andrew. Thank you. Nice. The director. So, um, the floor is yours. This is great. Okay. Um, good evening. Good evening, good evening. Um, it’s great to be with you. I, um, you know, very early on, I can’t remember, Joanne, was it, was it after? Right after I was sworn in? Yes. Right after you were sworn in. I came and met with, um, with Andrew and Joanne just to talk about, um, you know, the hot topics and I was blown away

2:50 by the portfolio. You all have. I mean, it, it’s really,

2:57 it’s awesome and a lot, um, you do, you having, you know, just a lot going on. It’s really, really important stuff. And I don’t know if people, you know, fully appreciate everything that you cover. So, in, in trying to think about what you know, what to talk about this evening, I kind of broke it down into, um, my favorite new topics all the way. Um, mental health and substance use disorder. Um, but of course if there’s, if there any other topics, I’m more than happy to answer questions. And then, um, if I don’t have the answers, I will find them for you. Um,

3:43 because you just cover a vast territory. Um, it’s really impressive. So thank you for everything that you do. Um, I will start off with solid waste in saying that, uh, the legislature is exploring the pros and cons of issues like producer responsibility, recycling, updating the bottle bill, um, in the environment and Natural Resources Committee, which is the committee I sit on, one of them. We’ve heard testimony on producer responsibility and recycling. The bottle bill is weirdly heard by the telecommunications, utilities and Energy Committee. I had no idea what, um,

4:29 we actually, I don’t know if you know this in Marblehead, we have a wonderful connection to Bottle Bill. Um, one of my predecessors, Larry Alexander, who, um, preceded Doug Peterson, was the author of the Bottle bill. So I, I often joke with his widow Alice that the next bottle bill that we have, we’ll name it the Larry Alexander bottle Bill. It’s Mary ELs. What’s that? Mary Alice. Right? Mary Alice. Um, so, and there are many versions of the bottle bill, by the way, many versions, um, supporting, um, co-sponsoring the bill, uh, written by public health chair Marjorie Decker. I think it’s the most comprehensive. It covers, um, I love this.

5:19 Any drinkable liquid intended for human consumption. And so what bill number is it? That is, I knew gonna ask 26 0 9. I’ll get it for you. Okay. Um, yes. And um, but there are, there are many versions. Yes. So we think that whatever bill ultimately comes to the floor, if it comes to the floor, um, could be a combination of lots of different Okay. Ideas. And can you kinda walk us through the process of adopting a bill and Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so let’s take the bottle bill. Um,

6:04 that it is, like I said, gets referred to telecommunications, utilities, and energy. They hold a hearing, every hearing, every, um, bill introduced in a legislative session is entitled to a hearing. Gets a hearing. So we have almost 7,000 bills that have been introduced. Right. So it’s, it’s an obscene number of bills, um, that all have to have the hearing. So I think there are maybe three or four bottle different bottle bills. Yeah. When I looked I could find two if not more. So that’s why I was kind of like, yeah, which one are we looking at? So, you know, what will happen is they will, so they’ll have the hearing there from a bunch of different experts,

6:50 legislators, and then when the decision is made, hey, we’re, we’re actually gonna take on the bottle bill this year. ‘cause you know, it gets punted every year. Um, there are a lot of competing interests around the bottle bill. Um, but once the committee chair decides to take it on, um, they will probably look at all of them and kind of pull, it’s never, it’s really there for one particular bill for them to say, oh, you know, this is it. We’re gonna move on this one. It happens. Um, we just did a great wage equity bill last week and that was the case. Um, but I think when you have so many different versions, they’ll probably, you know, look at ‘em all and go through the testimony and, you know,

7:39 put something together. Okay. So that’s kind of, it’s, it is really, I mean, you’ve heard this before, but it really is making sausage. It really is. Yep. It, it’s not pretty, but it works. Hopefully it’s tasty of Yeah. Making sense. It just, yeah. So, um,

8:03 does that answer? Yeah, I Think the biggest part of the model build that a lot of us are kind of interested in is pretty upside. Um, so no, it’s like a common piece of trash that we see around town. Yep. Um, and I call it trash ‘cause there’s no value to it because it’s not a redeemable. So somebody’s not gonna come along and be like, oh, there’s 5 cents or whatever, and pick it up. So I think that was something that we are really hopeful would get included in the bottle at all. If, if, if I had to guess, I would say it will because you’re not alone. Yep. A lot of people talk about the nips. In fact, that’s usually the first thing people talk about, um, because they really are a scourge. Um, will people actually redeem ‘em, turn them in?

8:50 So, yeah. Um, I think we should give ‘em that option. Yeah. Yeah. So yes. So yes, are definitely in Chair Decker’s Bell. Um, I think there are not all of them. Okay. Honestly, um, as far as producer responsibility goes, there seems to be a growing consensus around the big ticket items like mattresses, um, cardboard, and, um, I’m hoping we can include paint in that. Yeah. And that’s the big piece for us. So obviously we have our household hazardous waste date coming up November 18th. Oh, is it November 18th. And so that’s always a big piece is like, you know, a lot of these items, um, people have to pay large amounts of money to get rid of ‘em. Right. Um,

9:35 and so it would be great way to, you know, have, uh, producer responsibilities that, you know, when we bought the paint, we were able to return the paint to where we bought it. Exactly. And they would be responsible for dealing with that. And so, yes. It just makes it a little bit easier on the consumer. Um, and we don’t have this hazardous waste sitting around in our household. That’s right. And I’m a co-sponsor for that oil. No. So you, so it would be for all paints and obviously Yes. The latex is non-hazardous and you can get rid of that on a regular basis. Right. But a lot of people still hold onto it and on the day of move, they’re like, what am I supposed to do with this? Yes. And so it always becomes this issue. And so if there was an easier way to deal with it, it would just make life easier for people. Great. And then non-profit runs it. Yeah. They get rid of the paint. Yeah.

10:23 Which is a good thing. And actually, same with mattresses. I don’t know if you know about this Yeah. But there’s a really wonderful nonprofit that engages young people in taking apart mattresses. And we utech you do use ctech? Yeah, we do. Yes. Great. That’s fantastic. So we, we support the program as we do. Thank you. Quite, you be. Thank you. We, um, so when we heard the Bill UTEC came in and testified Yep. And they were terrific. I mean, it’s, it’s a fantastic program for young people. Job, it gives ‘em jobs. Um, it works. It’s great. So we’d like to expand that. The UTECH model. Yeah, exactly. That’s the idea. Um, and as far as you know, there are bills related to a statewide plastic ban. Skip the stuff.

11:12 I don’t know if you’ve heard about Skip the stuff. It’s a great idea to make, you know, when you go to like Fe Yang and get Chinese and they throw in, you know, a huge bag of condiments, and I don’t mean to pick up ba yang, sorry. But you know, they thrown a bag of condiments and plastic, um, silhouette. Yeah, exactly. Cutlery, blah, blah. Um, rather than just throw it in, um, you’d have to ask for it. So, you know, one idea. Um, and then single use plastics, big deal. I don’t know if you saw Governor Healy’s executive order. She, um, just signed beginning the purchase of single use, um,

11:59 drinks, plastic drinks, uh, plastic bottles rather, sorry, by, um, executive agencies. So this is the first in the nation move. Um, we’ll see how, you know, if other states do the same thing. Yeah. And so we just have a question about that, that we’ve pushed out. Absolutely. And so, you know, during emergency response time, are government agencies able to buy single use plastic? Plastic? Oh, that is a great question. And so That’s been a big concern of ours, because I’ll run that, that’s kind of our go-to Yeah. During public health emergencies, you know, is it a water break or anything like that? Yep. We have contracts in place to be able to purchase that, those items. And so Yep. If we can’t, what, what is the alternative? Okay. I will get you that answer. Absolutely. Um,

12:47 okay. That is my solid waste section. Um, next is mental health. You can ask any representative or senator what their top three priorities are. I guarantee you one of them will be mental health. Um, I often talk about the fact that the Marblehead Counseling Center is a unicorn, and how lucky we are to have such a resource in an accessible location with a caring team with deep ties to the community. Um, it’s really quite amazing. It was great to work with Senator Kreton to get them in a very small earmark, um, in the f y 24 budget that I hope they can use to alleviate

13:34 the, you know, the long wait list that they have in some, in some way. Um, it’s 25,000, is that It’s 25,000. Yeah. They could use it for bonuses, um, which is a big deal for them in attracting talent.

13:53 Um, but statewide, we also saw an unprecedented investment in mental and health. Um, we had, uh, in this budget 120 million for children’s mental health services, 25 million for emergency department diversion programs for kids and teens. Um, 6 million for social emotional learning grants for K through 12, including 1 million for K through 12 mental health screening. So Marblehead will be able to apply for that. Um, three now million for better access to telehealth services for students. And overall 598 million for the Department of Mental Health Adult Services. So you can see that, um, the conversations that we’re all having in the community are showing up in the

14:42 budget. Suicide prevention is related, obviously. And so we allocated $8 million in the budget for suicide prevention programs. And then we recently overrode the governor’s veto of the Samaritans program. It’s a texting program for teens called K Sam. And it’s $1.4 million program she vetoed. And I think she vetoed because she didn’t quite understand how unique of a program it is and how effective it is in teens reaching teens. So we put that money back in. And I’m also pushing to get a suicide hotline number placed on the back of all student ID cards. So I’m hoping we can get that done. Um,

15:31 the third piece, substance use disorder. Uh, I know, you know, overdose death overdose deaths were at a record high in 2022. Actually, just this, um, this morning I was in, I’m also on the Committee for Higher Education. And we heard a bill this morning to give the, um, give grandchildren the same access to free, uh, public higher ed that the, um, the D C F caseload is given. So if you or a child in the D C F caseload, you’re able to access free tuition. If you are raised by a grandparent,

16:18 you do not have access to that. And so we heard from a number of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, and every single one of ‘em who testified were raising their grandchildren because of substance use disorder, every single one of ‘em, it, it was incredibly touching and incredibly sad. Um, as you know, the opioid crisis spares, no one, and I certainly saw that this morning, the drugs are more dangerous than ever. And they’re laced with fentanyl, which is why I applied the board. Tom, thank you for bringing attention itself in itself, um,

17:08 to make fentanyl strips more available, because it, you know, these drug, this is not your, your grandmother’s drug drug scene. It’s not. And, uh, we need access to those strips. So thank you very, very much. Um, on September 26th, the governor and the lieutenant governor also announced a partnership with Boston Medical Center to fund and expand the Massachusetts Overdose Prevention helpline. And, and it’s easily accessible. They use what’s called a spotting model to prevent fatal overdoses. So users basically stay on the line with trained staff,

17:53 and if the caller becomes unresponsive, then helpline staff will alert authorities. So, um, we actually, uh, because one of my colleagues sons died of a drug overdose, we did a big training, a Narcan training in it for House and Senate members. And I now carry Narcan in my car and I have it in the office. Because one of the things, um, that was brought home during this training is that, you know, you could have somebody using who comes to your office for a meeting and you know, you, you don’t know that they’re actually, you know, in the bathroom using and coming in and having your meeting.

18:42 You just, it’s very unpredictable. You cannot profile this. And so, um, we all got trained on it and now I keep it with me. So, um, that is my report from the state office. I’m happy to answer any questions. Again, I applaud everything you do for our community. Be, uh, I am, I’m dazzled. So thank you. It was very thorough. And you went right through the three, did I, things did I miss you? Are you sure? And let’s see. Um, I think, I think we did it. Yes. Yeah. The Bible was foremost. And then we asked what you were doing, uh, what other committees you were sitting on and you helped us. Any other?

19:32 No, as far as concerns, Uh, I was just gonna say, ‘cause most people didn’t read the papers, that Jenny was a huge part in getting the, uh, fentanyl strips available. So thank you for that. Um, also, you know, um, a lot of the things you bring up, you know, are things that I’m focusing on. Mm-hmm. So, uh, you know, as far as recycling, I’m sure you know, with the current, the Beacon, everything, uh, the big talk in the election was about the sorting floor. So that I think is gonna be a massive step once we, and I hope we start talking about that real soon, because that would make Marblehead more of like a pioneer towards recycling, construction and demo. Okay. Which, um, you know, it’s, it’s gonna be a trend in, in, uh, all of mass D D P, and it’s gonna be limited facilities doing it, and we can, uh,

20:19 capitalize on it with revenue from it. So it, it would be great if we start moving in that direction. Um, the other thing I was gonna say is that, uh, you know, it seemed kind of, I don’t know, maybe people thought it was silly, but like the, uh, when I focused on the website right away of cleaning it up, there was, there was strategic, um, a strategic reason, one in particular that I was leaning, uh, because mental health, I threw a lot of, I spitball lot of ideas towards therapists, um, of what you can do when money isn’t available, what you can do when there’s a backlog at Marvel, you know, at the counseling center. Yep. And all of ‘em seem to latch onto one, which was, um, you know, promoting physical health. And that’s something that I feel very big, you know, that’s been a huge part of my life. It’s a huge part of my confidence and, uh,

21:07 making me feel good. My morning gym crew is a community, you know, Barbara Beta’s been a part of it before. And, you know, I’d say hi to him in the morning, all that stuff. And a lot of people feel that way. You go see any CrossFit community, you go see, you know, any juujitsu, whatever. So having, the reason I wanted this to be more user friendly was because I do want have a link on there where Marblehead physical fitness areas mm-hmm. Whether it be the Y M C A jiujitsu, you know, Brian Mallick could TaeKwonDo, who I went to when I was like eight and is somehow still there. Um, they can easily locate those things. Maybe a guidance counselor can promote it to, uh, you know, if a parent reaches out being like, no, my kid’s just not, you know, something like that. To get a kid involved in a community where they can feel, you know, special and gain courage, you know, confidence. You know, I work with,

21:55 um, one guy that weighed 400 pounds and he ran, he, he asked me how to diet and all that stuff, and I trimmed and he ran a tough mud, which is eight miles up mount snow. It’s not easy. And the fact that he did that was incredible. And you could see his confidence booming after it. Yeah. Um, another girl, you know, I saw run a marathon, you know, in my work. And like, you just see the progression of that stuff. So I think I agree. And I’m glad the therapist latched onto that. ‘cause I’m hoping that, you know, the website where I can kind of, you know, put that up there, you know, just, just as a resource. Well, it’s Really interesting you mentioned that, because I don’t know if, I’m sure you all have seen the recent shootings in Lynn. Um, thankfully it’s been quiet the last couple weeks, but, um, we did a community meeting in Lynn and, um,

22:42 we were able to announce that the Y M C A mm-hmm. Decided to give free memberships to win seventh and eighth graders. And that was a direct response to the violence because the idea is let’s give kids a place to go to be physically fit, healthy, get the endorphins running. And I thought that was really generous of the y to, to do that for all that great program in middle schoolers. Yeah. And I, that’s one thing I’ve spitballed to the, um, to some of the facilities in Marblehead is, is kind of doing a, um, you know, um, I don’t know, a, a lower fee for adolescents to get them involved like earlier.

23:27 Doesn’t the y I think the y the Y does. Yeah. But there’s, so, there’s so many in town we don’t, most people don’t even know about. Right. So, um, like you mean the smaller gems? Yes. Yes. And a bunch of them have, you know, proactively, you know, gone out on Facebook and said they were gonna do it and say they’re very enthusiastic about that. So I think it’ll latch on a little bit. So hopefully more of that to come maybe next agenda item. I’ll throw it on now that we get the website sorted out and, you know, I’m more than happy to spearhead that and get, connect all them to it. You touched upon that, uh, drinkable liquid. Could, could you just go over that one? The, um, any drinkable liquid is Right. So in, right in the bottle bill to try and create the largest possible grouping of drinks, um, it’s defined,

24:16 it would be defined in the statute as any drinkable liquids for, um, any drinkable liquid intended for human consumption. So, um, the only, I think, um, baby formula was the only one that was excluded from that. Um, but the idea is to just create the widest possible grouping of drinks. And it’s, um, it would be two and a half liters for, um, non-carbonated drinks and three liters for carbonated drinks Going up to really big bottles. Well, right. I mean, you’re trying to, you can picture like the big Pepsi that we’re trying to get at. Jenny,

25:02 can I ask a question about this? I, I’m really excited about this bottle note Being Expanded. Yeah. And Because I remember doing some research into this earlier, I feel like my family doesn’t return all the bottles and I know all that’s going into our waste stream. And, um, and there was a lot of data that looked at the significant number of bottles that aren’t returned, and then they go into the recycle where we’re not sure, um, if that’s an effective place for them to be. Do you have any idea of what that Yes, I’m sorry. Mentioned this, um, the bill would increase the return from 5 cents to 10 cents and then it would be adjusted upward for inflation, I believe. So that we’re trying to, you know, create exactly,

25:51 create the incentive to do it. Because interestingly, and I know, you know, this, the, um, the bottles that are returned are in terrific shape compared to the bottles that we put out on the street because, um, is it co-mingling? Yeah. Right. Because of the co-mingling. A lot of them break. They’re, you know, um, they’ve got schmutts all over them, whatever. So we, the recycling, I mean, a lot of the glass that we put out on the street actually just gets crushed. Right. There’s no value. There’s no value. But the bottles that are returned have value because they’re in pristine condition.

26:36 And so it’s super important and one of the ways is to increase the amount of the deposit. Okay. So it’s been like how many years? 30 years Since it’s never been increased. Right, right. It’s never been increased so that this would double it and then I believe adjust it for inflation. And then will there be redemption centers that are kind of included in the Bottle bill around The state? Or how does that work? Yeah. Well, it’s interesting because, you know, the recycling people would have you believe that this is, you know, a really bad idea. Um, but I think we’re starting to see some of the big recyclers actually get the game. And I think once they get in the game and they’re making money off of it,

27:23 it’ll be different. And you’ll also see more places, more returns, more returns as, or more places to return rather more places to return. Um, and that’s just, it’s really an, it’s, it’s an evolving process. You know, you have to work with, um, work with the recyclers as well. Um,

27:51 did that answer your question? Yes. Thank you so much. Anyone else?

27:56 I really appreciate you taking time. I appreciate seven 30. I really am happy to hear you coming and speaking to us and answering the questions we had. You did your homework. I tried. Thank you so much, Jen. Thank you. Inviting, always would see you wanna come back? I will come back anytime you once and I won’t, I will get Yeah. Answer your question. That’s an important yes. So We’ve asked up the state, um, through emergency preparedness, and we have not Received an answer. Okay. Well that’s easy enough. I’ll get you answer. Thank have, thank you

28:34 everyone. Your mental health desk force, Joanne? I’m ready. Great. Yes, I am.

28:40 Um, so the task force last Monday night invited Gina Hart from Marblehead High School to present, uh, the youth risk survey at our last meeting. And the data, uh, collected by the survey was really compelling and informs risk and protective factors. It was, uh, gosh, about 30 slides and it was data that had been collected last year and then, uh, it was compared to the state. And this week I believe they’re, um, putting the survey out to the students again. Um, so that we’ll have some more data to compare and start to see trends and inform, um, programming and, um, areas to really pay attention to with our students. Um,

29:28 so the data, um, helps us understand or helps the school specifically understand the current strengths and needs of our youth and the resources that we have. Um, interestingly, the positive news was that 97% of our students at Marvel Head High School report positive connections with peers and 71.9%, Tom, you’ll be happy to hear this report engaging in physical activity. Mm-hmm. Uh, but, but 14.5% report getting eight or less hours of sleep. So that is a risk. Um, and in areas where our students are above the risk threshold related to mental health, our students’ anxiety, depression,

30:15 and psychotic experience are areas where we’re in a risk area. The data had concerning results related to reporting of self-injury and suicidality, though markedly less than the state’s reporting for this past year. Um, I, I’ve just got some highlights to share that I really picked from the data that stood out to me. Um, 45.2% of the students struggle regularly with body image or negative perception of how they look. That is wishing their body looked different and engaging in behaviors to change their body. Again, 45.2%. The survey saw lifetime use of alcohol remaining similar between 2021 and 2022 at 41% for students. Um,

31:01 use of cannabis in that category decreased, but nicotine use was up from 19% to 34%. Um, so Gina is conducting this, uh, survey again this past this week right now, which is going to be helpful. And there’s tremendous value in the data that cont but there continues to be so much to unpack. This study was, this survey, um, is from M G H and it’s done across the state. And then you can really look at, well, what’s going on in our state, but also what, what concerns are really standing out here in our town with our young people. Um, it’s, uh, let’s see. It’s important to appreciate, I I really took away from the talk,

31:48 the abundant programming we have engaged at M H S. So there are certainly needs that were identified in this survey risk survey, but there are also a big list of things that are already boots on the ground, um, programming and resources available to serve our students and meet this need. And some things I, I wanna point out, everyday health team harmony, um, d e i programming aimed to promote an inclusive community for all the I decide program, which is a diversion program for, uh, substance use infractions that the students, um, that need nor more support can get. And I, I just think that’s a, a really exciting opportunity to really not have punitive

32:35 response, but supportive response. And, um, our m h s community is earnestly striving to meet the needs of our students through this programming, uh, social and emotional learning. I think that seems to be really something our community as well as the state is investing in, um, as well as supportive programming. And, um, there’s, you know, it was, I think three slides worth of different areas that the school is trying to serve the students and meet these needs. And, and there’s a nice match between the needs that we’ve seen identified in the survey and the resources that we have available. But certainly we can continue to grow and improve those resources. Um, on January 10th, Marblehead High School will be hosting Chris Herron. The P C O is bringing Chris Herron in, who is a local athlete, um,

33:24 whose substance use prevention talk has been greatly appreciated in the past. And, um, P C O and Marblehead Female Humane Society are funding and evening program that evening so that once the students are all able to attend the program during the day, their families and other community members will be able to come in. And hopefully, you know, if the kids came home and talked about what they learned, parents can go here for themselves, what their children learned, and then hopefully be able to answer questions and have engaging conversations. And what Was the date for that again? January 10th. Um, also I’m really happy to share that Mark Labon, who is a psychologist at Salem University and has served on our task force, has, um, was nominated to be co-chair of the Marblehead Mental Health Task Force.

34:11 So he will be co-chairing our task force. Um, and he’s just a, a tremendous leader and such a thoughtful, um, talented and, and passionate, uh, mental health professional. And I think with our subcommittee, um, framework, it’s going to be really helpful to have a co-chair to serve in that role. And, um, and I think we are, we are planning our next meeting for November 13th at 7:00 PM and having a, a strong agenda Going forward. Well, that was pretty full. I know. I had to, so now I, I can see why you need a co-chair. Yes. So, congratulations. Thank you, Tony. Thank you for, uh, for your report.

34:57 I would like to state that I didn’t realize that Gina was coming to your meeting because I’ve invited her to the board next, the next meeting. Oh, great. And she’ll Do a better job. Well, She could go more in depth maybe to us. And so, uh, more to come, I can see, uh, the press madly typing away so she’ll get more Yeah, There’s a, there, it’s an enor it’s a Very talk to robust Survey. Yeah, it’s a, yeah, it is a very helpful survey ‘cause it’s been going on for a while And, um, I committee years ago, so, um, great.

35:38 Did you say the increase in nicotine was 34%? Is that just vaping? Does vaping have Nicotine? It’s all, all, it’s all all different from 19 to 34 I was feeling, so yeah, if it was a tobacco product, I think they would call it out tobacco Rather than Nicotine. Oh, okay. That’s what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. But I’m not so sure. I Don’t see kids smoking like two, So Yeah. So I think it’s more like vaping. That’s what I saying. Yeah. From 19 I think It is more vaping. Yeah. Okay. You’re definitely getting students asking, you know, I’m vaping and I can’t quit. Right, right, right. Where do, where do I go to get help for that? Yeah. And I, I could probably double check, but my slides are really small, so I can’t No, I just did, I didn’t know. I, I don’t think so.

36:25 I don’t know if it has nicotine in our time, so, um, I don’t,

36:34 So we’re going to have a little discussion about the, uh, board of Health increase in members. Uh, it seems that there’s been, um, a discussion, uh, casually not at the table, but it seems that things have come up that we have thought about increasing the membership to five, but I think there’s, it has to go to town meeting and does it have to go to the Commonwealth after that? I’m not so sure. I believe it might, but, uh, I know it definitely has to go to town meeting. Um, you know, once the board decides that they would move forward with this, we would go to Town Council and make sure that they would write the Town Meeting Warn article and that they could come back and explain all the steps. So we’re fully aware of how long the implementation of this would take. So if, if there’s interest among the three of us,

37:22 I think then we have to write an article and Yeah. So yeah. And I think the board would decide and we’ll seek, you know, telling Council can write the article, um, and then We go forward. Yep. So there, there are, um, some areas that I think that we could use five people. There’s only three of us. If, if, if one has a conflict or is ill or someone in their family is ill or whatever, I think that it’s difficult to run a meeting with just two people. And also I think that there are times that we need people to sit on various committees like Joanne is on one and, um, we, we spread ourselves so thin that it would be helpful to have five people. Um, I see that there’s all, there’s sometimes there are retirement parties.

38:09 We can’t even go, two people can’t go to Right. A, a retirement party for com for a, a person who served for years in town government. Um, and even if you wanna go for an ice cream, right? Yes. We can’t even do that. So, um, maybe you wanna have a little discussion about it or you want, I, I’m totally fine with it. I, my big, my biggest positive out of it is the increase in community engagement, which I think is lacking. So that’s one thing that, you know, when we talk about making people feel valued and important, it needs to go outside of this room, past those doors. And I don’t think we do enough of that, of engaging with the community and ‘cause some of the decisions here, um,

38:54 have major effects on people’s lives in town. And if we’re not engaging with them and understanding, then we’re really just, you know, we’re just rubber stamping things. So, um, I think if you increase the members, you could increase that engagement. But I’d also like to see in the meantime, an effort from all US three at the table to go out there and actually engage a lot more than speeding sun right now. And, uh, so you’re in agreement with this? Yes. And, uh, I, I really got excited about this because, um, there’s recently an article in the globe, Massachusetts has a decentralized governance structure where the 351 towns and cities and two federally recognized tribes

39:41 are independently organized for the delivery of public health services and operate autonomously from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. And given the breadth and depth of responsible responsibilities of our Board of Health and the limitations that are imposed by open meeting law, having five members on the Board of Health would really expand the knowledge and the diversity of members, um, and would allow, uh, members to communicate more freely without violating that open meeting law. And according to, there are many boards that have gone from three to five as probably since Covid, because things have become more complicated. And there was certainly a big burden on these 351

40:29 municipalities to navigate this public health crisis. And, um, and there was a comment from a member of the saga Board of Health, which went from three to five, that suggested it’s extremely beneficial, that allows for differing opinions and can lead to spirited debates. It also allows to your point members to meet if a member or two are unavailable as a form of three is needed. And it’s reasonable that serving the goal of transparency would be enhanced with a larger board to communicate with residents and, um, provide context. So, um, I think also our board can benefit from a broader group toward community health improvement planning policy and program development and prevention

41:18 activities using grants or other funding. So it could give us much broader, much broader scope. So it sounds like we’re all in favor. Mm-hmm. So we don’t have to wait for another vote. Do, do we need vote? I’d like to, yeah, you Should vote. Um, make it official and then we can reach out to town council to write the article and we’ll continue the conversation a little bit, um, based on information that comes back to them. Um, obviously, you know, it, it’s very con like you said, you know, um, I think across the Commonwealth you see everything from three to seven member boards. Um, in this area you see a lot of three member boards on the Cape who sell a lot of five member boards. Um, so it is kind of community, community, but I think, you know, um, there’s a lot of benefit of hiring five members. And so, you know,

42:04 Well, I certainly could, can see a benefit. And Joanne listed several. You have a, a thought. So I, I’ll entertain a motion to, uh, to recommend, uh, three member, I’m sorry, go from a three member board to a five member board, which will have to, uh, be written and go to town meeting. I would like to make that motion to go the three member board to a five member board. All in favor? In favor. It’s unanimous and, uh,

42:34 it’s Vote. Yeah. So I’ll, I’ll speak with Lisa mute about this. And, uh, if there are any questions, you know, as soon as the article is written, we can bring it back if there is any questions about the language and stuff like that, you know, talk about if there’s anything that we need to do for town meeting, go from There. You had some good points on there that were, you’ve written down. Do you wanna give that to Yeah, I think, yeah, you definitely want to keep some of the stuff. I think there’ll be good talking points when we have town meeting. We can just, you know, think a lot of that stuff will come up. Okay, great. Um, you know, Engaging the public, you all of that stuff, There’s tagging onto that. Um, I was able to have a conversation with Dr. Zaro, uh, this past week, and he was interested in, uh, forming a, a committee. Uh,

43:20 he and I talked about, uh, long range planning and looking toward the future. He, uh, act he’s outta town this week. I’m sorry that he’s not at this meeting because

43:31 I think every single meeting since it began this year, and, um, he mentioned the year 2030. Uh, and I think that it would be good to have him come to our, our next meeting. I mentioned that to him. And, uh, we’re gonna be seeing a lot around climate change and with that there’ll be other issues. Um, and it seems that the board of health, he, he claims and I agree that, uh, we, uh, concentrate on the day to day and I think, uh, and we’re more in the moment. And I think it would be helpful if, if, um, a long range planning committee could bring information to us that we could address. So, um, what, what do you, what do you think about that? I mean,

44:21 that’s a new topic. He’s gonna come and give his, he has laid out a few, uh, areas. Um, I don’t know if you wanna talk about that now or, but maybe wait for him to come. Sure. I think, I think he’s such a resource. We, we met him when he was running for office and he’s a MD PhD

44:42 engineer, m b a engineer and ran a hospital in Africa and then ran the public health, um, common for the state of New Mexico and taught at the University of Virginia Medical School and Law School. He just brings a wealth of information and expertise in public health and has been eager to make contributions and, um, with that background in public health, I think he is a, is a great resource for our community and can help and we’re Very lucky his services to us. I think it’s, we’re fortunate. No, I like Tom a lot and, uh, I, I love that he puts himself out there. I know he goes to the community center and outside Crosby’s and sits there and talks to people. My mom and her friends are very impressed with him. So anything he has to offer, I’m willing to, uh, you know, go with it.

45:32 So hopefully, uh, he will be at the next meeting. Uh, and he hasn’t given me a definitive yes, but we’ll hear more from him. I just thought it was a good time to bring that up as I think it’s another change. Um, the transfer station. Uh, so I was hoping to have an updated construction schedule, but I did not receive that from the architect today. Um, I actually have a meeting with the architect tomorrow, um, myself of the owner’s project manager. Um, we need an update on d e p permitting. I need to know, make sure they, all the construction documents and bid documents are being assembled. Um, and we need to have a formal, you know, document to say this is our schedule moving forward, um, and making sure that we understand exactly where we are. Um, obviously,

46:20 you know, we would like to complete this project during our quieter times and not fair, you know, therefore have less impacts on the facility itself. Um, and unfortunately I don’t have that updated schedule, so I I will have to get back to you with that. Um, and so I will, I do have a meeting or a tentative meeting with them tomorrow and, um, you know, really want to get into the schedule and, and all that Stuff. Did you give any, uh, reason why he hasn’t uh, addressed this? I, I think one of the biggest thing is that, you know, to them it’s a smaller project, so his subs, you know, tend to have, it’s a little bit of a smaller project, like I said. So they’re not always engaged, you know, trying to find time if they’re working on bigger projects to get this in there. Um, I think that’s giving him, um, some issue, but I need to hear it from him Exactly. Why, um, we’re not exactly, you know,

47:07 I I why we have up need to have an updated schedule and where we are, um, because we need to keep this project. Well obviously we’re not chop on his list.

47:18 Hopefully you’ll see some movement tomorrow. Yeah. He’ll have something for you. It will be nice. Yes. We where now the compactor was gonna get, um, replaced prior to the construction, No part of the construction. So, um, the compactor is gonna be replaced by our, our compactor company that does the repairs now. Yeah. Um, so we’ve purchased the compactor. Yeah. Um, the, the concern we had long time ago was the lead time. Yeah. Um, so it was about a 30 week lead time to have the compactor. It should be arriving to their facility really at any time. Right now, I’d have to call Dave Frazier and ask for an update on that. Um, that needs to come in, but the only way that compactor can be installed is it in the lower, um,

48:04 tractor trailer, the large trailer, um, that’s gonna get a concrete pad and that’s gonna set the elevation for the compactor itself and all that stuff. Okay. So the work that’s gonna be done on the pad will be done during this construction project and then they will be the contractor. So being installed by others, um, will be the compactor and stuff like that. And so they’re gonna do the compactor and the, the, um, the steel chute that goes into that as well. Okay. And this is all before they do building the new swap shed? No. So a lot of it, so we ha when we hire the contractor to do the work. Yeah. The first thing you’re gonna do is you’re gonna sit down with the contractor and say, this is what we need to do, you know, we need to stay open, we need to replace these buildings and we need to have an understanding of how

48:51 you’re gonna phase this. So we stay open and coordinate all of that. Mm-hmm. Because remember we wanna replace the scale house now that that was an agreed to. Uh, but we want that done during construction so it’s, so they have people on site to either replace ‘em Right. Where it is, knowing that it’s gonna have to get moved later. ‘cause you’re gonna be building that look, you know, the new house. So we’re Talking about replacing the scale house with like a trailer that what we discussed before, right? Yeah, exactly. Yep. Okay. So, you know, we want them because there’s a whole bunch of work just to do that in itself. Okay. So you gotta disconnect the plumbing, you gotta disconnect the electrical. Obviously the scale has to come on on and all that stuff, but you want the contractor to own all that stuff and make the requirements to say, all right, I’m gonna move it here.

49:36 This is where it’s gonna be during construction and he’s gonna own all that stuff. Okay. But you wanna sit down and, and have an understanding of what they’re gonna do and agree to it. Yeah. Um, because really once that compactor goes down, we can support, we believe we can support residential operations. Obviously large commercial operations and stuff like that stops. Yeah. And so we want that downtime to be as little as possible. Yeah. Okay. No, I just wanna make sure, you know, a commitment to the workers there. Yeah. I just wanna make sure we hold onto that. Yep. And go with that. Um, also, this is kind of just gonna be out of the blue here a little bit, but you know, there is a lot of scrutiny on the past project. I’m glad you gave that talk, um, you know, with all the slides and everything like that. Um,

50:22 but there still is a lot of public, uh, trust that needs to be, um, you know, that’s solidified and uh, I know that there’s someone in town, uh, maybe in this room that uh, is willing, that is experienced and has a lot of leadership qualities that would be willing to tag along with Jerry pro bono. Okay. And he is sitting right there, Bob Roberta, and correct me if I’m wrong, so I’d like to throw that out there. It doesn’t cost us anything to have someone out there just giving a, you know, making sure things are done right. So,

50:59 So we’d have to talk and see like, you know, generally it doesn’t happen. Um, I know. Um, so we’d have to talk to everybody and see how that would happen. Mm-hmm. I mean, obviously, you know, people are more than welcome to attend public meetings, look at documents. Um, Yeah. I’m more concerned about onsite. Okay. Um, As is he. So, you know, um, I can talk to the owner’s rep, I can talk to our procurement officers about that and, and see about adding a volunteer in here. Um, and you know, Do you have to insure them or something? I, we have to look at all of that stuff. Yeah. Something I think about right away Yeah. Through a contract with the company. So Generally, like, you know, when we’re hiring an owner’s project manager, they’re self-insured. Um, so yeah, we would have to, you know,

51:44 we would have to look at that. Um, You must have a contract with the current. Correct. Yep. So Beckys a lot of, uh, various. Yeah. Let, lemme me talk to Becky and like, let me talk to everybody and I’ll come out with an answer with that. Okay. Well, well would on the transfer station, uh, have you gotten a new employee to replace the one that left? Yeah. So as far as operations go, yes. So we have a new hire. Um, any other questions about the construction side? Are you guys ready? That’s it. Okay. Um, so yes, operations side, uh, we have a new employee that started today. Um, you know, really the main focus of his job is the check stickers, um, both commercial, residential, all the way up. Um, you know, hopefully this is really gonna be the solution that we’re looking for. Um, and obviously, you know, this is the start of the implementation of separating out the commercial from

52:32 the residents. Um, but yeah, he started today, he works from Tuesday through Saturday. Um, so yeah. We’re, you know, hopeful that this will work for you and what Happens on, on Monday, just the peak. So Monday is, you know, I I am always employees short, so Monday is a normal day and so yeah. I, I won’t have somebody checking in stickers on. So this is probably good for me to bring this up at this point. Um, that when I, you now, this is 2025. This is plenty of time, but I’m jumping in front of this. Yep. In front. So I had a lot of people reach out to me about the license plate reader, one in particular who actually, uh, he’s an ex-police chief in town and he said that he knows how to make it so that if we went the route of the license plate reader, we could remove any employee from being involved. And how he would do that is similar to epass.

53:20 You link it to the D M V and he knows exactly how to do it and he said he’d walk us through it, present it, um, so that if someone came in and didn’t have have a pass, they’d be issued a ticket. And normally where they would just throw it away, um, they could not renew their license without paying it. And so that way you could just tell the employees hands off, let them go in, let them do whatever they want. ‘cause they’re gonna get hit with a ticket and they’re gonna have to pay it. And so that Makes That a little easier. So obviously like, you know, again, we’ll have to like look at all the, so generally the issue is is that we have to have a town law or a town regulation. Yep. He Knows how to do all of it to connect The two. Yeah. Um, the concern is that if you have a truck that comes in and they’re just trying to

54:05 get rid of brush, they don’t have a sticker, they drive out back or or another item like that, they get picked up on the epass. Mm-hmm. And now they’re in the system, they don’t get, so we have to have some contact with them to make sure that they come out Yeah. Just like, just like EZPass there’s appeal processes. Yeah. But he said he knows how to do all of it and he’s happy to walk us through it. Okay. Again, this is 2025. Yep. So I’m just throwing it out there to put it on the radar. No, and I, and then he said he’d get involved. Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is, you know, do some research, find the company that actually has it developed. You Know, I also have people, a couple people in the license plate reader, um, a couple that reached out to me that Okay. Um, are have more information. We do a presentation, things like that. Yeah. ‘cause the company that we looked at before, and I wanna say it was called the sticker list system. Mm-hmm. Uh,

54:52 we can reach back out to them and get pricing and stuff like that. Uh, but essentially you could put this out to, you know, uh, get quotes Yeah. On a system like this. Yes. We have some time. So we continue to look. Yeah. We also, and we just Wanna remember that when we look at this stuff, we have to remember that we need to budget for it. Yeah. Um, so we need to kind of just be ahead of that as well. Yep. Because That would be on this coming upcoming budget. Nope. 2025. Right. Which is, we’re entering 25. Yeah. So when he starts that in January. Yep. Mm-hmm. So it’s right around the corner. Yeah. So I mean obviously that’s something that we can, you know, start to take a look at. Mm-hmm. Um, we can go back and see if the stickless system’s still out there and you know, if you have other contacts and stuff like that, um, you can pass this along and we can start to, you know, engage,

55:39 just engage those and work with the procurement officer and see if we can get quotes for that stuff. Well, I’m glad To hear this. Uh, new employee’s gonna be working Saturdays ‘cause that’s the Yeah, Saturdays is a busy day up there. Um, you know, the hardest thing with, you know, we are very busy transfer station for 20,000 people. We only have, you know, a few number of people that work up there. Um, you know, obviously Marty works up there on Saturdays to help out and stuff like that. Um, so currently we have four outdoor employees and one dorm. Can I, can I raise some? Yeah, so I had the privilege of going with Andrew to the Wellesley transfer station this past week and it was really, I like, can’t even describe how, um, how, How impressive it was.

56:24 The, the gentleman that gave us a three hour tour were the two four men who’ve been there for like 20 years and 30 years. And they really love their jobs. They remind me of like, you know, the guys that work for a long time at our transfer station and take a lot of pride in their work and have a great relationship with the community. And, um, it’s out, it’s not in the center of town like ours is where, you know, everyone can see into the transfer station from different vistas, but it’s out on the edge of town and the, the Needham in the woods and the Needham transfer station is like juxtaposed on their town line. And it made such an impression on me because, um, it’s, I think it’s hundreds of acres, more a hundred acres more than our transfer station. I don’t have,

57:13 I don’t know you recall, I think it’s at least a hundred acres bigger than ours. I was gonna say 86, but that, you know, I don’t, It’s pretty close. Was it 86? Yeah, I mean it’s pretty close and ours is like 13 and a half. 13. Okay. But they service 28,000 reps, residents and the Marblehead transfer station services 20,000 residents. So they’re 50% bigger community almost. Not quite, and yet you can, I can’t do that math real quick, but 14 acres to 80, I thought he said over a hundred acres. But, um, so, and it’s also built on former dump, which is problematic. Mm-hmm. Uh, but again, it’s not in the center of town. And there were so many, um, things that I, I was eager to see. Like you’ve,

58:00 I’ve heard of the Wellesley transfer station and we got there, the foreman told us that it’s world renowned. Like people don’t just travel from all over the Commonwealth to go to the transfer station in Wellesley. They go from all over the country and people from outside of our country. So they set this up and it’s got a really big reputation and I have to tell you, it doesn’t look much different rather than being much bigger than the Marblehead transfer station, which I continue to be really impressed with their, um, recycle center and the way they have it set up. Just like us, we have reuse, recycle, repurpose, dedicated to those values. And just like ours, it’s something you notice when you go. Um, and, and this, I have to jump ahead because I got so excited when Jenny was talking about the

58:48 bottle bill because one of the things that impressed me so much was they actually have a, a, a standalone section of the recycle center, which is in a shed and they have it designed really elegantly for the, the residents to come and put the bottles that can get re redeemed into this very efficient system where, you know, the kids do it. We watched kids pulling out the bottles outta the family’s bag and putting the two liter bottles over here, one liter cans or you know, smaller bottles and then cans and, and, um, just cans I guess. And, and bottles, little plastic bottles. And then people that work at the transfer station have a system of picking up when the blo when the bag, the bags get filled, they take them and put them away to go bring them to the redeem center

59:37 redemption centers. And he said that they bring in $20,000 a year from this effort. And, um, I just think that that’s a really easy win potentially if we could make that happen. They also said that they get the bags, it’s something they, they get a great deal on the bags that they use to go back. They use a common bag for all the barrels in town, so they get a good deal. Yes. So, um, they were pretty excited about that too because I think they, again, take a lot of pride in this, in this resource that their town takes a lot of pride in also. And there’s lots of great meet, great, happy, appreciative media attention on the value of their transfer station. If you go on Wellesley Transfer Station, you can look it up. And there’s some great stories about people finding treasure at the,

1:00:26 I forget what they called it, I’m sorry. They called it the, um,

1:00:31 it’s not the, I wrote it, it’s not the swap shop, but it’s something like reuse or, or, or take it or leave it. That’s what it felt. So, um, so, and they had some of the same challenges with the take it or leave it that, you know, I think we have at our swap. She, but continue to value that as a resource for the community. Um, I, I just think if we could emulate that, that little section of, um, bottle bills as I think the state is really taking some interest in really building up that, that system. And I think there’s a lot of value to that. Um, and I think something else I noticed, well, so they also have a sorting floor that they just re um, they had to re fix the, uh, it’s a fabric liner that goes up and you can, looks like a big tank.

1:01:18 It’s exactly what Yes. Yes. And, um, they had to move the sorting floor elsewhere and then they’ve got it, um, ready to move back into the newly fixed sorting floor. And they, they make their own mulch. They, the community comes and takes the mulch. They’ve just got a really beautiful system where the, the community values this resource tremendously. So that said, I also, um, walked away being really impressed with the fact that we have four, we have five employees for 20,000 residents and the Wellesley station has 14 employees for 28,000 residents. And, um, ours is just as clean. And another thing to note is,

1:02:04 you know, the smell, they’ve got a little more leeway. They don’t live like so close to residents in their homes, but they, they, they manage the, to keep that very efficient, very clean. But, you know, you go to our transfer station and it doesn’t smell. It’s a really remarkable, um,

1:02:24 effort I think by the time to keep things moving. And, um, so I thought there were so many parallels and lots of things to learn by going there. And the number one thing I learned was that a, we are comparable and stand strong next to the Wellesley Transfer station. So those were my observations and I think it’s really value to go there and, and have conversations with, well, I think you’re going to find a lot of people from Hood going out to Wellesley. Well, yeah, because like, what, what is that going on? Go on a field trip. So you were with the sorting floor they had there? I, well it wasn’t, it was kind of in transition. Yeah. But I, yeah, yeah. So it was the style that I had talked with you before. Yes. Um, and so that’s why we were going there was to, to take a look at their operations Yeah. And understand the pluses and minuses of it. And so it is a clear span building,

1:03:11 uh, with a fabric, um, out skin on it. Um, you know, they, they have it designed. They’re, you know, they definitely made some recommendations. We had already wanted to make sure that we incorporated into that obviously. So the base of the structure, you wanna make sure it’s all lock wall. Yep. Um, you are gonna be pushing up against it. You know, obviously that’s not ideal, but like things are gonna happen, stuff is gonna shoot certain ways and you need to protect that skin a little bit. Okay. Um, but yeah, that was why we were, you know, we wanted to go and take a look at this. Perfect. Um, and so the way they have it set up, um, and it’s not to say we have to do it the exact same way. Um, so they’re building’s approximately 120 by a hundred. So you can fit a whole 18 yard, you know, a hit whole, um, 80 yard trailer inside. Yep. Um,

1:03:58 they have an excavator that’s elevated off the floor that can fill the trailer and they have potentially two sides that you can dump. Yeah. Um, and then you can have another operator like, you know, so somebody dumps over here, pulls out, somebody can dump over there where the excavator’s working over here, moves stuff out of the way, crunches stuff up to maximize, um, your lows into the trailer can switch over to the other side. Um, again, you know, this is kind of where we talk about the feasibility study. Um, we’re gonna wanna hire an engineer to take a look at our current facility and come up with a design that we can bring back to the town and get plenty. Okay. So it sounds like this could, it can be something that we can, we should probably put on an agenda regularly going forward because the town is gonna need ample notice and explanation and, you know,

1:04:46 answer Q and As and stuff like that before town meeting. ‘cause it would be a debt exclusion override. Yes. Yep. So that’s correct. And so obviously the first piece is that you’re gonna go to town meeting for the feasibility study. Yeah. And then after the feasibility study. So that has to wait till town meeting for That. Yeah. We don’t have money for engineering and stuff like that. Yep. What does the feasibility study that Would be the engineer coming in to take No, no, No. Like price wise. What do you mean? I would Say around 50,000. But you, you’d have to put that out to bid and see what it’s gonna come at. Mm-hmm. But obviously you’re gonna have to come up with an estimate. Yeah. So this is something that we’d be looking, the realistic thing would be 20 25, 20 26 FY 26. Just ‘cause like, you know, um, so we, when we we’re talking to FY years rather than, so Yeah. You know,

1:05:31 you go into town meeting this year, so calendar 24 mm-hmm. Um, for the feasibility study. Yeah. Go back to town meeting in 25. Yeah. Hopefully for money to build it. Yeah. That’s, yeah. And and the idea with the structure is that if you, my understanding is that if you use large enough block wall, that you don’t have to go into the cap, you can sit right on top of the asphalt. Um, they had a little bit of a concern with the excavator always working, like grabbing material off the asphalt, just ‘cause it damages and stuff like that. But again, we can point that out. I do that anyway With the leafs and stuff like that. Right. Correct. And that was kind of my point. You know, you can get a more of a clamshell bucket. You can look at different ways to kind of protect that.

1:06:17 Obviously it might be one of those things where it just needs to be maintenance. Yes. Didn’t he, didn’t he suggest it Was very important To have a concrete? Yeah, he, he had a, he suggested a concrete slab. That’s not something that we have, but that’s something that the feasibility study could suss out for us. Okay. Um, the other piece with that is that we need to think about increasing our budget for employees. Right. And how many employees do we need and stuff like that. Yeah. Um, so I think, you know, those are our, those are our main objectives moving forward. The transfer station is keeping this in mind. Yeah. Obviously trying to optimize current operations, um, but trying to always keep this in our view to try to reach that goal. Mm-hmm. Well, we’re also light on employees on the public health side. Correct.

1:07:03 Um, I maybe I I should refresh everybody’s memory that 20,000 citizens, uh, in order to be, uh, uh, accepted by, by the Commonwealth we should have eight employees. That’s Correct. Yeah. We are not an accepted, uh, board of health. Right. Health department I should say. But can I just go back to the transfer station for a little bit? Um, so with the feasibility study, I love, you know, I, I I think everybody’s in agreement. That’s what we wanna do. Mm-hmm. I think what the board wants to do is vote to move forward with the feasibility study. Yeah. Okay. Um, and then I can talk to Becky and we can, same thing. This is gonna be a town meeting article, um, and all that stuff. And I think we just need to keep this smooth, right? Yeah, exactly. I’m with you. Are you ready for the feasibility study vote now? Or you want Yeah, I’m

1:07:50 Ready for the feasibility study Vote now. Alright. The feasibility study for the, um, yeah. Uh, calendar year 24 f you know, title meeting Yeah. For calendar 25. Calendar. Calendar 24 Ffy 25. FY 25. Yeah. Alright. Uh, ill entertain a motion for the feasibility study for, uh, transfer station for calendar, uh, 24. Mm-hmm. Uh, for the year of Yes. Next time meeting. Next time meeting. Uh, is there a motion? Yeah, I’ll make a motion. I’ll second a motion. All those in favor? Yeah. Yes. Aye, I did have a couple things. Wait, Excuse me. Uh, it unanimous. That’s about, And then yeah, obviously with that, you know, we’re gonna have to,

1:08:36 we’ll talk to a couple different engineers to get base idea about what we’re gonna need for what we think the, the feasibility is gonna cost us. Um, and that way we can, you know, secure the, the right amount of funding from town range. I do have a couple transfer station related things, so I’m glad. So if that’s the last item. Well wait a minute. Um, are they, are they on the, uh, on the agenda for Today? I submitted them and they should have been ready. So, operations or what, what are they limited One’s? Arnold, Paris. Um, they just had some questions. I think they should be pretty quick to run through. Um, the, uh, they, their concern right now is that the truck comes in and he honks his horn to get their attention to open the gate, like in midday. Okay.

1:09:23 Maybe a phone call. So he’s got a, so if it’s our tractor trailer driver, he is got a clicker. He doesn’t need, nobody needs to open the gate For him. Okay. They say, they say that he’s been hit the horn. So, and then they just had a couple questions, um, about, uh, all right. So I think I, I’ll I can just run through them. Uh, they wanna know if the, if the traffic study could be made public. Yeah, it is. I think it is public because we, we can definitely post that on our website. Okay. Um, it’s part of the, um, planning board decision. Yeah. So when we submitted our application to the planning board, we had to submit, um, the V H B traffic study. Okay. So maybe we can put it on the website and that would be something they could look at. And then they just had a couple easy,

1:10:08 you can probably fly through these if you, and if you don’t know them we’ll just try another time. Um, did the traffic study include trucks that could be entering Green Street? Yes. Okay. Did the study consider extra foot and bike traffic, especially during summer and school breaks? Yes. Did it take into account snowstorms and their impact on the width of Green Street and sidewalk? Yes. Okay. Is it true there will be 600 extra cars a day and that this will no, uh, have no negative safety impact? So I, I can’t say about the number of cars. Okay. But the B h B said there was no negative impact. Okay. And that was the conclusion of The, and the last one was, uh, did the study consider the blocked division from the fence coming out of Green Street until the vehicle comes to the side?

1:10:54 So is it for Green Street? It’s an entrance. Um, so when we’re like fully operational, it’s an entrance and not an exit. Yes. The, the large tractor trailer for the trash will be exiting there. Um, and yes, I, you know, yeah. Are they high enough? Yeah, they’re high and they can, there’s a pretty solid clear view up Green Street. Okay. You know. All right. There you go. Ellen. Um, Part of the, um, planning board decision though, was once we’re operational to have a review after six months. Okay. And So obviously we agreed to that, but, And there was a swap shed item, um, because I did catch wind online that the swap shed employees, uh, were feeling very ignored, underappreciated.

1:11:40 And I can’t say I disagree with them. ‘cause then I went to meet them and apparently on the first board of health member to go there since 2018, which is not a good look. And since their, uh, designs and stuff like that have been made that impact them, um, they wish they could’ve had a say in it. Um, they’re, when this project was done, a lot of their supplies were thrown away when they said they would’ve happily taken them to their house and held onto them in the meantime. And they’d just like to also in the future, just be given a heads up if something’s gonna be left in their parking lot, they’re not opposed to it. You know, if a pile of something needs to be left there, they just, you know, shoot ‘em a heads up and be like, Hey, this is here just for when you show up. And, um,

1:12:26 I talk to them also about how we could kind of make this a better relationship with them. ‘cause they are volunteers, so we should give them extra care and they would like to next year be included. Just kind of have a carve out on the agenda, um, once every two months. And I talk to, and I think that’s totally reasonable. Everyone agree? Yeah. So I usually communicate with Gretchen the leader. Um, and so like any, you know, any issues there, she, her and I email back and forth. Okay. But go up there, Talk to him once every two months. I mean, I, we can’t make that commitment, but we’d be happy having come anytime I need to talk to us. I mean, I don’t think it’s too much of a commitment to make two months have talk for five minutes. How about if we, they’re welcome to home. They’re welcome to, we’d like to put it,

1:13:12 But I also recommend go up there and talk to them. Makes a nice, it’s nice and easy. They’re, it’s, they’re very easy to find and they’re very nice people. Um, we did have the issue with trucks to resolve and I thought, I’m, I’m happy, you know, thank you Joanne, for reaching out to some of ‘em. And so I just wanted to reiterate it. So, in my opinion, this is an opportunity to acknowledge a mistake and fix it. Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s how you correct those mistakes. Now, this law is complex, but ultimately was meant for load size, not truck size. And that’s confirmed by Mike Elliot of Mass. D e p. If the facility accepts trucks greater than five cubic yards, then a comprehensive inspection record and recording, not necessarily recording would need, would be needed regardless of whether it’s C and D or not.

1:14:00 Now Joanne, I know your concern was, um, the, uh, number of employees, but we do accept loads, uh, trucks bigger than five cubic yards for other materials other than C and D. So how do you know they’re not, it’s not C and d. You have to have someone checking. We do. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So, so that part is really already taken care of with the current employees. Um, the decision was made off an f a Q page, which was not in line with the law. And the f a Q page was in June, 2020, which is two and a half years before the rule was made. And no forward communication was made with the contractors. Now that’s something to rectify in the future. When we see something coming down the pike, we gotta give these guys a heads up. Thi this is a major cost for them buying trucks and stuff like that. So if we know two and a half years in advance,

1:14:46 that gives ‘em a lot of time to prepare, um, ask questions, be ready. ‘cause in this case, they just showed up one day and they weren’t allowed. So that’s something. And uh, Andrew made a point of saying that the trailer could not exceed 20% construction demo. Now we’ve only, you said also said we’ve only breached that once in five years, but this law has only been in place for less than a year. So odds. So if we were to just undo it, then we probably wouldn’t breach it because we only did it once. Can you explain that? So Andrew said that, so 20% of the trailer can be construction demos. So not, so you have to understand this. So we’ve only gotten a letter from D e P regarding it. We have, or not even a letter, a concern from Waste Management stating that we’re seeing loads over 20%.

1:15:33 Yes. And that has been in the last two years. Okay. Two years. Yeah. So that’s one, that’s one year. Yeah. Even where, you know, full trucks, full-size trucks, it was, you know, there was only one incident. We have what, 14 um, trailer, 12 to 14 trailers a week. 52 weeks a year. You know, it’s pretty good. And so, um, so the yards are, we wouldn’t hit it regardless. And I’m, and but I, um, I won’t be done with that. So the wor, so the workers need to pay attention either way because I like to use this, you know, me having a Tacoma, if I had a parade of, to Toyota Tacoma trucks driving in, and all we had in ours was C and D, all the trucks would be legit. And we’d have a hundred percent c and d in that trailer because we all had

1:16:20 construction demo in our tacos, which are very small trucks, but it’d be a hundred percent c and d in the trailer, which would violate the rule, which is why you always need to have someone eyeballing it regardless to see if it’s 20%. And, um, you had mentioned, Andrew, that the estimate it when they estimated it, that, um, you know, then people coming in and throwing out a couple things, they wouldn’t be able to, but if, since it’s an estimate, you still could, Right. So, so what we would do, just so you understand, so if we moved to do this system where we had to track all C and d mm-hmm. You would just note every driver that had C and D and track that as C and D. So Yep. The way we have a scale house set up is that I have to track every trailer to

1:17:06 make sure they’re not overweight. Yeah. So every load gets tracked and it gets added up. Yep. And so all you’d be doing is that you’d have a, a box that would calculate out the C and d and as soon as you hit the 20%, you would cut off all C and D? Uh, yeah. I, I mean, I’d say that you, so it would be All wood, everything. Yeah. But I, I wouldn’t, I mean, I don’t think that’s realistic, but if someone walks up with a two by four, they couldn’t throw it in, it’s not gonna throw it off. But what would happen is with the two trailer solution where you’d have two trailers a week, anyone that showed up in a car, say Steve showed up in his car and he had something to throw out that was not construction and demo, he’d get turned away. Right. So there’s, there’s also options on how to handle that too. So in the design, we have a design,

1:17:53 so we have a 30 or 40 yard can that’s gonna sit next to the pit. Okay. So for residents that have a di minimis amount of, you know, if it’s, you know, c and d for, for a regular, they can put that in the can or if it’s unassuming. But that would just be a can too. So that, that would still cause some chaos with the trucks that weren’t driving C dropping C and D, they couldn’t unload. That’s correct. So that would be chaotic. Um, I mean obviously It’s all about scheduling, so you’d have to have a known schedule. Yeah. Which it is difficult, I think, you know, especially with, with the work these guys are doing. Um, so now what I’m calling for is, you had mentioned it’s only, you know, as far as you knew, it was only Chris Kennedy and Liam McGowan. I think it’s a few others. I can think of Monica Johnson and uh, uh, Al maybe. But, um,

1:18:41 my solution is, as I said, the line in the back that clearly indicates five cubic yards strictly for Marblehead contractors out of town. That doesn’t apply to them. Now, as we said, we didn’t hit it before when out of town was included. So now we certainly wouldn’t hit it if it was only in town and it’s only 3, 4, 5 trucks. But you do understand I’m gonna have to start to track it though. Yeah. But you also understand that they could cut the top of their trucks off and then it would be the exact same thing as putting a line and they’d be allowed in. Right. But so, so that’s, it just doesn’t make sense. The Concern is like, so obviously SEAL D material really should be recycled. Yes. Which is the sort, and this is why, uh, this is just a temporary solution. Obviously the sorting floor is the long term solution, but you know,

1:19:29 with how this was handled, I, which I don’t think was, well, I think this is something that could make those guys happy. You know, they, and we’re just focusing on, on making things right with the marble headers. That’s it. These guys paid for the place. Um, you know, they’re, they’re valuable members of this community. And I think, like we said, it’s only a couple of them and a clear line. It’s the exact same thing if they were to cut the top of their truck off. So that’s, it makes no difference. And they could do that. And some of them are talking about doing it. So then, you know, but then that hurts them from doing moves and stuff like that. If they were to move your house, now they have a shorter truck, it’s gonna take them three times. It’s going hit you three times as much. It’s sort of like, if I am gonna start to get all this mu this much more c and d we’re gonna have

1:20:17 to implement the 20%. And so I’m gonna have to cut off. I don’t think you’re gonna get that much more C and d I, I understand. But like, I have no choice but to, like, I have to stay within the rules Okay. Of waste management mass, d e p. Sure. So I need to have safeguards to say I’m not gonna violate otherwise. Yeah. As they say, you know, once we, right now we’re working together with mass d e p mm-hmm. Once we stop working with them and start to go the other side and have all these violations, then they really start to look at us and start to come down and say, well, we need to take a look at all your operations. So, so you said you had the bin for when those two trailers come, but how about just having that bin for C and d undoing this and then that bin is just C and d and then you don’t need it for the other stuff because all the other stuff is included in there. And you know,

1:21:05 the trucks, they, the ones I talk to are fine if it, if they’re all in the same playing field, they’ll go to Peabody when it’s 20% fine. But the, the people coming up, um, say Bob was to drive up and just have a handful of stuff, he could drop it in that bin. That bin no longer needs to be just for regular traffic. It can strictly be for C and d for people that drive up in their cars. So it’s the same purpose, but it’s just flipping it, You know, some of this discussion, if you made an appointment with Andrew, you could get a lot of those questions answered without, um, taking up all these people at time. This is an important issue for the, for these People’s important issue for you and for you to get the Answers. Ah, you should see my online following. It’s a pretty important issue for a lot of people. Well, I do see your online following. ‘cause I, I have that. So, um, you have what? I have that, that that whole uh, Facebook,

1:21:54 this what about nine pages that only I have this, There was something that was on Facebook that has a lot of Sure, yeah. Put it all in. It was all Comprehensive. So I saw that. But I’d like to make a motion to, um, can you Hold on that? Yeah. Um, so I did take very seriously your comments. Mm-hmm. And I think that I was at the meeting when this load size, the reaction to the fact that the mass d e p changed the both size and There lots of, Uh, frustration. And I also heard some suggestions, like Liam was coming up with some ideas at the table, um, even during the conversation here at the meeting. So I did promise to go speak to some of the people that I

1:22:41 know that use the facility for c and d and I got, you know, I didn’t get what I expected. I had some people tell me, well, I use a smaller truck for that. And some people saying, well, I’m just grateful to have the transfer station available. And then I spoke to someone who, um, was really articulate, making a point that this would be really helpful for the business. And I still have a concern. I I wanna learn more. I mean, I have to learn more because I’m worried about our staff trying to police this. I feel like, thank you for sharing that. This is something that, um, the employees already do, but I just don’t know how to understand that yet. Because I don’t think we can ask our five employees to be policing these

1:23:28 loads. Um, I mean, they already have to. So that’s the thing. You already have to, because if they weren’t policing it, then the truck could come in and just be like, oh, I, I only have, um, a clean out in the back. They have to check always So they don’t have to check every truck. So they’re no, The big trucks, They don’t have to check every big truck, but they’re supposed to do four big trucks a day. Mm-hmm. Which really comes down to is what d e P’s looking For. And, but these employees, Marty will tell you, you know exactly who these guys are. Right. How many Of them are there because, Uh, Chris Kennedy, Liam McGowan, what are we, what are we talking about the big trucks people from? Yeah. What about us? You know who they are. Basically if you see ‘em like the Monica Johnsons, I don’t See Monica Johnson. Yeah. So they don’t see much.

1:24:14 Um, but I can, I see Kennedy and I, the They’re easy identifiable. I mean’s they’re guys. But what’s the, what’s The question you’re Asking? Just if you recognize them when they come in their trucks. Yes.

1:24:27 That has nothing to do with what’s in the back Of their truck. No, I’m just saying that though, that if you recognize their trucks, you’d know which ones to check.

1:24:37 I, no, I think that’s so it’s not like we only check those trucks, so mm-hmm. It doesn’t, it’s not like we just check Kennedy’s truck. I don’t know the last time I got a Kennedy’s truck check actually. ‘cause they all have on them who they check. Mm-hmm. So I don’t, I I can’t say that that would happen. Um, No, I’m just asking, you know, when Kennedy’s truck comes in, you know what Kennedy’s trucks looks like? That’s, They’re they’re marked. So Yes. Yeah, It’s easy enough. It’s only four or five. But, but what does that have to do with, You’d know, so you’d know which ones you’d have to look in the back ‘cause you’d recognize the truck. You’d Have to look in the back of all marks. That’s trucks. Yeah. That’s what I think you have To do that anyway. That’s the thing where this is confusing because So, so like, if, if, if I have to make sure that I’m not gonna hit over,

1:25:25 go over 20% of c and d per load. Mm-hmm. I’m not looking at every, so it it, so, and the guy can stand there pretty casually, but every truck that’s gonna be dumping C and d is gonna get, they’re gonna tell the scale operator, Hey, track that weight. Mm-hmm. And so every weight is, so as soon as we hit the 20%, it’s like, okay. All CDs off. Yeah. So now let’s say, say a hypothetical world where they all cut the tops of their trucks off. Right? But so if, so if I was continuing to get more than 20% waste management’s gonna come back to me and say, time out. Yeah. I, I can’t take this material. So how do you not do it? Now? I don’t understand where the disconnect, ‘cause I’m not, I’m not getting to those numbers. Yes. I’ve gotten a warning to say, Hey, you need to be careful with the amount of c and d. Yeah. You really need to look at these Practice. But these guys all got small trucks. There’d be no issue.

1:26:13 No there would be an issue. But still, That’s what I’m saying. There’d be an issue regardless. So you need to check, uh, regardless. Right. The issue is that the material coming in, so if if I continue to see every day it’s just c d Yeah. Then I’m gonna have to stop and can only take 20% C D Right. Which means you have to observe as is. So that’s what I’m saying. If you already have to observe, then this isn’t much of an ask. So, so you’re gonna, so you want me to stop at 20%? I’m Yes. All, All construction at any wood product’s over That. I mean, you have to do that anyway. So right now I don’t, I’m seeing those numbers. Right. Right now we don’t hit the 20% on a regular basis. You stopped and You didn’t also when the trucks were there. So what one of my,

1:26:59 Which makes my next question is if I’m checking the load, what would the difference be whether they had the, the painted line or not? It would be irrelevant if I was going to straight 20%. It doesn’t matter size. That’s what I’m Saying. No, I’m saying it’s irrelevant. I’m agreeing with you. But you just Said if they want to put a line in instead of cutting their truck, but that’s not what’s on the table anyway. If we went to the straight 20%, it would be a measure of 20%. And once that’s reached Yes. It doesn’t matter. So, so correct. So then what was your question? Were you asking me about The line on the truck? I it was a very simple one. You recognize their trucks and do them as marble headers. But you Asked if it was, but We don’t know them As, I mean obviously know Kennedy and those guys. K And them do not everyone does know. You’re not gonna be looking at every truck. No, I’m Not telling you to, I’m telling you that the four or five that we know they are like,

1:27:46 because you have to look in the back anyway. So it’s, it’s irrelevant. Like these, why would I only be looking at their trucks? Right. Because now you know that those are bigger trucks and it’s four or five of ‘em. I Have to look at everybody. Exactly. So what’s the difference? Thank you Alan. I think this is way beyond what means This is, I I feel like I’m on crazy pills right now. Look at the crowd right now. They all see exactly what I’m saying. This you have to truck Re check regardless. We heard you say that they have discussed it and I think it’s something that you and Andrew, if You wanna go forward, I’m gonna make a motion that we allow those trucks back in because it’s not gonna be on me. If you, this will be a decision of you two on whether you do the right thing here and fix it. I Make Motions on. I just made the motion. You can’t tell me what motion’s not to make

1:28:33 A particular individuals in the community. Yeah. Marble headers. This is their utility. This is all marble head’s utility. This is not a business. It’s a utility. It’s for the benefit of marble headers. And we’re, that’s, we’re losing sight of that.

1:28:49 I need to ask, could I say Something? I’d love to hear Steve. No. Well wait, I’d like to ask Andrew a question. Yeah. Um, do you feel that it’s important to separate friends or, or people that he, They have friends or marble headers or community members Lot? There must be more marble headers that haven’t asked for this. So the, the concern is, is that the facility’s open for residents and, and all of marble head. The concern would be is that if we started to really looking at seeing dating and we hit the 20%, you are gonna be cutting off for a group of people on a daily basis, I believe. And you say, and you say a group of residents that Can be like when you’re going, it’s, to me, commercial is commercial. You know,

1:29:34 whoever’s going through that commercial line, as soon as I hit 20% cut off and there can’t be any c d in that.

1:29:45 I’ve got my answer,

1:29:49 My motion still stands.

1:29:52 Is there a second? It’s on you guys then. I need more time. I need to see this. I’m sorry. I really understood. I talked to people and I didn’t see this big need. I talked to one person that said, yeah, there’s a need. And then all I could think of was, and I I I’m sorry, I’m not gonna go against my director and my board member where

1:30:16 we are serving the residents first. And I do see the need here, but I just need to understand how, I guess it’s like visualizing these trucks compared to Okay. You know, you gotta go up there and, and you know, hop in the truck with Chris or Liam or any of ‘em. And I’d recommend you do the same thing. Reach out to the community. This is your community. Reach out to ‘em. Joanne called the I’ve than You’ve been born. That’s not true. It Is true. I’m 41. You’ve been here 41 years. Yes, it has. That’s the same amount. No, I’ve been here for 51 News. Ah, whatever. Actually 56. Well, You still don’t understand it apparently.

1:30:53 There’s no mo no second to motion. We’ll move on. Um, so we on to the Direct point. Uh, so the fentanyl test strips, uh, so the mailbox has been installed, uh, it’s just outside the front door. Um, and there’s been all test strips in there 24 hours a day. Uh, do Can you walk Into No, it’s the main access door to Oh, the door. So Mary Alley, it’s a d a compliant. We wanted to make sure everything was the way it should be. The town accountant. I’m sorry. Yeah. Right. Yeah. As you’re going into the town, into the treasure’s office, is It brown like we Talked about? Yeah, it’s a small black mailbox. It’s got a public health symbol right on the front. It Does. Can I ask a question about Narcan? Access for residents and I’m, I’m, I really appreciate

1:31:39 The Good Samaritan effort that all people can participate in. And these are the laws that help people. Parents who may have prescribed narcotic medications in their home can have it in hand in case a child gets into the meds easy to use and harmless medication that can save lives. And um, I think as a board we should promote the never use alone message and the amazing never use alone hotline because fentanyl is in so many drugs now you can just expect it’s in, um, pressed pills, cocaine, methamphetamine, benzodiazepine, scary stuff. And there are lifesaving methods that can save even one life. And that would be worth it. My But I think you just wanted to add to that, that with the Narcan, with the Narcan, everybody can be your first responder. Everybody

1:32:25 Can be, right? Yeah. And I think, I think it’s just a message to continue to have as A community. Um, and so with the Narcan, we do have it available through the public health thirst, um, with the Narcan, there’s a little bit of training that goes along with it. Um, and, and I’m sure at some point that will be potentially in the mailbox office As well. Do you think that it would be, um, a good public service to offer the training? Yeah. So that you can walk into, as long as the public health nurse is there, she will do the training on the spot and you can walk away with the Narcan. Right. What I’m saying, Tom, I I know you disagree with that as far as like the training with the public health nurse. No, I’m Fine with that. I would not be okay With that because you’re sh you’re shaking your head No, I’m shaking my head because of that. Some people still realize that what I’m saying is exactly right. Um, but yeah, I mean I Do disagree with the fact that it being here, um,

1:33:12 I do think it would’ve been better served on the fire station. Everyone in town knows where the fire department is. I didn’t know where this building was until I was 30. So there’s no younger people have no need to know where the Mary Alley is. It would’ve made a lot more sense to been on the firehouse. I’ll take a wind where I can get.

1:33:31 So, um, we’re talking about the Fentanyl. Did you anyone to say, ‘cause Joanne started with Thenar Narcan. Do you wanna Uh, No, you know, it is October. So October is substance use prevention month. And so obviously we wanted to make sure that the mailbox is up with that, uh, Narcan training available. Um, and continue on with this could work. So, but one has to come into the office to get the Narcan. The Narcan. Yep. And the n the public health nurse has to be there. Yeah. So either myself or the public health nurse needs to be there for the Narcan, but To explain. Yep. Um, great. You can also get Narcan over the counter at c v s. Um, you know, I do not believe they have it at the c v s in town, her here. Um, but they do have at the C V s,

1:34:16 But there’s a fee for it. Um, no, there should not be a fee for it. Yeah. Oh, good. Okay. I have a Narcan in, uh, well in my husband’s car. Right. I, ‘cause uh, I haven’t been trained. Um,

1:34:31 wanna talk about the website? We’ve got the, the sheet here. Yeah, so the website, obviously the, you know, we’re moving forward with the website updates. Uh, Marty’s working with, uh, a individual that updates her website. Um, it’s not her full-time job, so it does take a little bit of effort. Um, but Marty and her haven’t met and trying to implement this. Um, so yeah, I mean they’re, they’re working along. And currently It’s the page two, the proposed. The only difference is mainly that the current system runs alphabetically. So other than it doesn’t go covid, uh, insects, trash substance, it just goes alphabetically. ‘cause that’s how it organizes the tabs. But other than that, the tab should follow similar to what he described in proposed.

1:35:18 So this, uh, page, Tom, is that what you marked in the office? I didn’t, I I gave it to Andrew. Yeah. So you did this whole thing. So yeah, I mean this is the whole idea. So this was the current, but then if you go to the page two Proposed, this is The proposed, so the first page would be on the left hand column. Okay. And then those would be breaking out into these, you know, once you clicked on Covid 19 that you’d go into the first breakout. The second breakout and stuff like that. The only other issue is it doesn’t go to a different page. It, but into a link, but it still follows the same path. They don’t have the ability to go whatever, whatever puts less on the left hand side. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So you’re satisfied with what it looks. Yep. Okay.

1:36:05 Uh, Yep. Collection, Uh, fall leave collection. Uh, so we have the fall leads, collection dates, everything should be posted online. And we just received the postcards. Uh, so you can pick up the postcards that we produce all last couple years at the transfer station at the Mary Alley. Um, and also at the tax collector’s office. And so that’s, we do it for a full, you know, for the full collection year. So for the full fiscal year. So all the collection dates for the fall and all the dates for the spring. Can we, uh, put, put an ad in the, uh, local papers too? Uh, we can see if they can run a free ad. We had stopped doing the ad ads because of the cost, but yeah, we can if they don’t Come. And it’s also posted currently on the site as Oh, it is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

1:36:52 Um, household has a waste day is Saturday, November 18th. Um, again, the, the biggest, you know, there is a cost to this. Um, this should be up on the website, um, if not in the last next couple of days. Um, unfortunately there is a cost. Um, so zero to three gallons or pounds is $30. Uh, three to 10 gallons or pounds is $40 and 10 to 25 gallons or pounds is $60. Um, and obviously the only thing that we don’t take, uh, take are, um, fire extinguishers. Um, but everything’s gotta be essentially on the lists. Um, but it’s a, your regular household hazardous waste, oil-based paints, pesticides, chemicals and stuff like that. Cool. Chemicals and stuff like that. Um, if you have a question, please call. Um, I,

1:37:38 ideally we have our new credit card reader up and running for that day for outside and we’ll be able to take credit cards as well. Good. Just a reminder, there is a 3% convenience fee on top of the total transaction if you use a credit card only. So if you’re paying cash or check, No difference. But credits are, that’ll be able to fit.

1:38:00 Um, so that’s, that’s it for you. That’s it for me. Okay. So, um, we’re, we’re going to just, I have to say about the meeting schedule. I, I’m going tell you the next two meetings ‘cause you’re gonna be on the second Tuesday of the month, November 14th and December 12th, because we’re coming into holiday and I want people to make sure that public knows, and that we know at the table know we’re on a regular schedule, say the 14th and the 12th. The 14th and 12th. Those are the second Tuesdays of the month. So, uh, hopefully there’s no issues that, uh, both, both, those are before, um, the holidays, the Thanksgiving holiday and the break, the, uh, winter break of school and, um,

1:38:47 the holidays that some people celebrate. So, um, Andrew and I have invited Joyce Redford of the tobacco control. She’s coming back. She had been here, uh, in the summer and she was talking to us and going to come back and help us to make, uh, some decisions about, um, a new pro, the new product, get the tobacco regulations, tobacco. But we, there was a new product Delta eight and some of the C Delta eight. The, and so she, we’ve, we’ve invited her to come back. We don’t have a date whether she’s gonna be able to come November 14th or 12. The same with Gina Hart. I was in touch with her, um, and, uh, the high school adjustment counselor. And I was gonna ask her to talk about the, um, survey. And you’ve given such a great report,

1:39:32 but maybe she’ll bring us the slides. We, you can see the slides if she could. Um, so I’m hearing back from her. She’s, oh, I was there. You at, at her meeting? No, that Andrew, are you talking about Andrea? I Gina’s slides next task force. Okay. But if you were there, I couldn’t be there. Like, but Andrews I had to watch it on at home ‘cause because we were a three member board and that was, um, that will help with some of that. Yep. So, um, and I’ve also, uh, we usually have the counseling center come around budget time, and they could speak to, uh, this board, but all of them speak specifically about, uh, vaping, drugs, alcohol use and abuse in that town. And it’s important to hear from these professionals. Uh,

1:40:19 so we can address these issues as an informed and enlightened, uh, public health officers. We need the facts, uh, from them. And I’m gonna repeat what everybody at this table has said, that drug abuse of any kind is a serious matter. Um, when we have these increases, it’s doesn’t make us, uh, it doesn’t make our job any easier. Uh, one life loss is one too many. I’ve heard that over and over and I’d like to say that again. So, um, with that, with the two dates for our meeting, um, I opened the meeting for No, we, part of the meeting schedule was talking about having bi-monthly meetings. You agreed to that, to have that discussion last month, last Meeting. Okay. Thank you for that. Um, all right. So we,

1:41:07 we did talk about bi-monthly. Um, why don’t you, um, I think it’s important to, you know, to make these look, be a little shorter. You can put more things in. I know some things I submit to the agenda aren’t on there, so I have to sneak them in. Now that we could get all the, all the items that anyone has. If you have two a month, you can get a lot more done. You yourself said that we need to, uh, we have so much important work to do. We don’t get a lot of important work done in one month and meeting a month. But also these I am, uh, I’m totally fine signing payroll ones on DocuSign. I’m not comfortable signing these without public transparency. Now these are bills that you guys have no idea exist. And so I think these need to be discussed at a meeting and signed at a meeting. And, um, it’d be a lot better to do that if it was every two weeks.

1:41:54 Well, we sign those every week. Yeah. And I’m saying I don’t want to do ‘em on DocuSign anymore. I wanna do them open to the public so the public can hear what we’re paying for. Well, Our director, um, writes the budget. How many signatures? You, You, Okay, so you’ll have to do it without mine. ‘cause I believe in transparency and I want the, I want the public to know what we’re signing off on. Our director writes the budget, we then approve the budget. That’s, You can say that you’re fine not being transparent to the public, and that’s fine, Transparent when we write the budget and approve the budget. So, um, as far as that goes, that’s how I feel. I, I I, I, I trust my director. He, when he runs outta money, then he has a problem. Not our, it’s not our problem. He has a problem. And we haven’t seen that yet.

1:42:42 And I, I, um,

1:42:47 I’m really happy with one month. If, if we run into, um, big concerns that need us to come together more often mm-hmm. I’m happy to do so. But I, I think if we have a subcommittee, which I believe this evening we voted to begin. And I think that my thought for the subcommittee could be one of us goes to the subcommittee meeting once a month, which could be a second meeting the month where there could be public, you know, you could go the first month. Helene could or Helene could go the first month. You could go the second month. I could go the third month and report back on the subcommittee’s. Um, progress and agenda And performance. I think it should be More. I think, I think I, I

1:43:33 Think we’ve already had two then I’ll have, but we also have the mental health task force, which meets once a month and the subcommittee meeting. So I think, um, I am a hundred percent committed to transparency. And I think that if anyone has any questions, which I’ve never heard a question Or concern about, You guys didn’t know these existed, did you? Well, every organization has to pay it’s bills to every department has those Bills. Yeah. They talk about ‘em. Ask Jen Chapman back there and see how they Talk about ‘em. Jen, would you like to tell us? I’ve been on the, what he’s talking about. I signed the school Committee votes, the schedule of bills every two weeks or every time we have a meeting and then their, the bills are paid after the committee votes on, and then we get them in our Dropbox so we can review them all.

1:44:19 We do all the invoices. So we see the invoices before we vote. And then public doesn’t see them. Public doesn’t see. They Discuss. They discuss them. They’re, They’re not discussed. If there’s a question they’re Not discussing. I’ve sat on the school committees, But we do vote though. I mean that’s the, That’s, and that’s what I’d like to say. And, And members go and review the invoices before they’re further enough. Yes. We, we, we reviewed them on DocuSign. Yeah. But we don’t, we do, we don’t discuss ‘em and vote them here. And that’s what I wanna say.

1:44:53 I’ve seen them because I foyer them. Pardon me? I FOIA them. So I’ve seen them. Foyer, foyer Freedom of information. I, Oh, sorry. I’m sorry. That’s the only way to see ‘em. It’s not, and there’s no discussion about it

1:45:13 As, uh, as far as the, uh, two meetings a month. I think when we’re coming into the discussion with Transfer Station, we are gonna see some extra meetings. I don’t think that we need to have, uh, a meeting, um, regularly, twice a month. It’s nine 15. And we spent about what started at 20 after eight and we sp talked till nine o’clock about the transfer station for 40 minutes. Mm-hmm. And, um, and we’re not done yet. No. And what, and I think that some of this could have been done behind, Or we had two meetings a month. We could’ve cut that time. We, we can, some of that discussion was just ex explaining to you. And I think that if

1:45:58 Nothing was being explained to me, I dunno what you’re talking about. Andrew’s. Andrew’s, uh, we are asking Andrew’s questions. Andrew’s door is open all the time and maybe you would’ve avail yourself to meet with him. We’ve Met, I mean, when you have, I can’t take Andrew’s word as as as what it is Exactly. ‘cause when I went to Mass d e p I found out the opposite. So I have to, so yes, Andrew could, Did you ask to check it? Check it out. I asked all of you to check it out and you didn’t. Chris Kennedy and Liam McGowan were in here and they asked all of you to check it out. You didn’t. That works. You were here. I was here. I have someone that works for the Board of Health that could check it out and report to us. You could have called, I have someone that does that. But You could do it. I could do it if I wish. I, so, um,

1:46:46 we, I’m not ready to vote on too meetings a month and we’re not ready to, um, to discuss this at the table. If you have questions on the bills, ask the person who I do. Andrew knows I send questions all the time. Okay. I, I would, I would I major then. I’m probably the only one that doesn’t rubber stamp these and I know exactly what each one does. I, I have to tell you that I look at every line because I’ve had an experience when I sat on the school committee that all five of us were told we signed a bill by the, we were told by the, uh, What does Veolia s technical do?

1:47:31 I didn’t think it could, I could keep going. I think they’re being rubber stamped. Good. Just So you understand what the build process on the budget. So obviously when We go, I understand the process, I just think it should be discussed. And that’s it. Like that’s, so When we build the Budget, we discuss all the items mm-hmm. That we can come up with when we go to the fi finance liaison meeting. Yes. From that it goes to the finance. I’m not missing any of these. I just think that these should be discussed with the amounts so the public knows. And then we agreed to sign off

1:48:06 and I just read off the very first company on my list and you didn’t know what it was. Despite you saying you do, you look at them very carefully. So I look at the price, I look what it is, and The descriptions on there aren’t very good. Well, It’s, I look at this other disposal. Other disposal. What does that mean?

1:48:25 He’s disposing of things and he’s paying for it. Oh,

1:48:32 Bob Tires, Verizon, Mason, Gilbert and co. Anyone exterminators Other disposal does not tell you what was disposed of.

1:48:43 If she had a question she could call Andrew. Yeah, you could. But we could discuss it here too. That’s all. If you guys don’t wanna do it, you don’t wanna do it. You’re not gonna Know what’s disposing of how much trash, how much this, how much that, That would be in the trash one. That one’s easy to read.

1:49:02 That’s this one here is utech, Inc. Other disposal. So what’s that

1:49:10 U something Confused? Utech is the mattress recycled company. That’s right. That’s what Jenny was talking about.

1:49:21 I’m just saying that I think it should be open to the public of what we’re spending the money on, what we’re spending their money on and signing you. You asked, uh, Jennifer, uh, If you don’t agree, I’m saying I don’t think that Jennifer goes line by line at the school. No, No. But I I’m suggesting we do. There’s only like you Go line by line with him and, and I, I, I do have certain amount of trust in my director. Okay. We both the budget at, at budget season, we agreed to Town meeting. That’s fine. You can disagree with me on this. I think that’s the way it should be done. And that’s the way. Okay. We’ll move on to a public comment. Any, anybody in the audience that would like to speak to? Okay. Uh, my name’s Steve Elliott. Um, not that really matters, haven’t we? I’ve been here a lot longer than both of you and I’ve used the dump for a lot

1:50:08 longer than either of you two have been involved in the town. Uh, but a quick thing on that budget, I use QuickBooks for my own stuff, for my rental property, my construction business. And I can at any time punch it up and say what my budget was in my 50% of it, 30% of it. I assume you do something like that? Yes. Yeah. So you know, you have a a hundred dollars budget if you’re close to it or exceeding it. And obviously ours is down to line items. Yeah. Okay. So I can understand, um, something that comes to mind. I’ve used the transfer station for well over 55 years, back from when we had just a little garage and Gary Green was up there. I’ve noticed in the last, pardon me,

1:50:54 few years that I see more and more vehicles coming from out of town. Bringing in could be clean outs, could be demo, truly don’t know. At one time, if we wanted to dump up there, we had to show we had a building permit for stuff in Marblehead. Quite frankly, I don’t care if somebody is remodeling their house and sale ‘em, I’m more concerned about the people remodeling their houses in Marblehead that they can do it for the best bang for the buck if they’re gonna have to pay Chris or whoever, you know, a couple more hours to drive to Georgetown or to P B D or wherever. I don’t think that’s really fair to the taxpayers that we’re out of our budget paying for the transfer station, paying for the dump and the whole board of health.

1:51:41 Shouldn’t there be some benefit just as we can go to Deux Beach and as a resident we get a discount parking as opposed to somebody from out of town. I don’t see that happening. I mean, you see trucks coming in and out of there all the time and um, I imagine some people have charge accounts there. I know I used to have one, but I don’t bother anymore. So the commercial side is open up to anybody outside, you know, we call it any commercial energy. Do we have to do that? It’s up to the board to how they wanna run. I definitely agree with you, Steve, that it, that in town we can only have 20% of construction debris going in there. I’d rather see that 20% coming from projects in Marble Head. So yeah, you just, you know, we’re very fortunate to have a place. Salem,

1:52:27 they don’t have a place. Lynn sort of has a place but doesn’t really have a place. So yeah, the, the, the town can choose to have a, what’s called an open facility or a closed facility so they can be open to who made that decision. The board makes the decision. It’s no, they, they make it, but who made it Now it’s been This way forever.

1:52:48 I disagree with that. Okay. But I, I agree with you Steve, that it should be even at, at the very least, like discounted on the way and pay for, For In town workers as opposed to out of town to promote in town business. This is Actually public Comment And when I, I just, I choose it bothers and I mean, I’m retiring, I’m semi-retired. It shouldn’t really interest me that much, but I, I just don’t see it as a fair system to a lot of people. And I go to the dump two or three times a week and lots of times I’m just walking by and seeing what’s going on and that, uh, I don’t think it’s a fair equitable system for the town.

1:53:32 Most people have no clue what happens. They put the barrel out of the street and disappears. They have no clue. And the, the commercial wage trash offsets, the budget goes into, into How much do you generate a year in commercial? It’s approximately one point. A little over a million dollars. Do you track that by residential as opposed to not residential commercial stuff? No, it’s commercial. It’s commercial. I don’t track it. It’s our Okay. No. How do you decide at the end of the day that you’ve reached in the 20% in the trailer? So Currently Ks up there. Okay, this truck had demo and there’s 2200 pounds in it. Yeah. So they, they’re just eyeballing stuff that comes in. But if we really started to meet the truck, like if we’re gonna start taking all the vehicles and saying any size,

1:54:21 we would really, you know, every vehicle that dumps sending count of CD that the guy that’s watching the trucks and let the scale operator know, they would track it down. You know, you’re just gonna track it down to the pounds. What’s the average weight per trailer? They have no idea. Is it 50,000 pounds? A hundred thousand. So it’s gotta be, so total trailer weight has to be below 99,000 pounds. Okay. So say, let’s say a hundred. ‘cause it’s easier. So that tells me in that trailer at 20,000 pounds could be down. Yep. Is that correct? Yep. That would be the ratio. But The numbers are right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I could see 10 trucks like my size, then that’s all you could take. Yeah. It depends on what’s in the back of the truck and all that stuff. Yeah. And where We were at the trailer, so depending on if trash it dumped or not, depending on how full that trailer was, that your 10 trucks might not have made into the same trailer greatly.

1:55:10 Depends on that. Depends on that. So that’s just an educated guess with most of that. Right. But if we were, you know, we, we could, I can track it down to the pounds Because the scales slips. Yeah. It’s all Scale. Scale. So that’s how we, But I see how many commercial trucks when I’m up there going through there. Yep. And I know about what mine is usually a thousand, 2000 pounds the most I would walk. Yeah. I just have a hard time believing that a trailer actually going out there only has 15 or 20,000 pounds of commercial demo type of stuff. You granted a lot of cleanouts. That’s, that’s the majority of what we see as clean out and That big bin of the plastic gets thrown in there. That’s a whole bunch of stuff. Yep. And a little packer too. Okay. I was just curious. Thank you. Thank

1:55:58 Anyone else? Hi, my name is Laney Goodman. Um, who? Goodman. Goodman. Thank you. My real name is Helene. My nickname is Laney. How are you? How you good. Um, so I’m here, um, because I’m interested in substance use. Um, so, but the first thing I wanted to say is kudos that, you know, if you got the Fentanyl strips and Narcan, me personally, I would like to see it available somewhere that people can really go, like even for me to come here, I had to like, look where is that street and which building am I going to? Um, fire station, police station high school.

1:56:44 I think Narcan should be at the high school. Um, and I apologize that I’m not a frequent And I believe it actually is not available to high school, but it’s in the high school or in the schools if they meet it from referencing at this point, I, I, I personally think it should be available in the high school as well as the Fentanyl stress. Um, and I apologize that I’m not a frequent flyer here. Maybe I will be. Um, but I do have to say what I’ve seen tonight, I’m not really happy with. I can see two against one or one against two. And as a longtime citizen of Marblehead, this does not look good. Mm-hmm. And so whatever Discord is going on needs to be rectified because

1:57:29 it’s just not a good look. Mm-hmm. Thank you. We talked about respect last week. Oh, last month. I mean, and we’ve gonna continue to talk about it. It’s not just last month.

1:57:45 Anyone else? Yes. Uh, first of all, that print out we got there. If you listen to Thatcher Keyser, if we’re unclear gov, everything will be known. That’s Right. So we’re not unclear Hill yet, but we will Be, find that out. That printout. There is printout that I’ve been getting every time I ask, every time I fo something. That’s the printout. So obviously we’re not up to speed. So what your name Alan Waller. Aaron Alan, Alan Waller. Thank you. And the second thing, as you’re all well aware, there’s a, there’s a large amount of skepticism revolving around where hell construction projects. And the only way to put that,

1:58:31 there’s only, well, the way to put that to rest be, if you’re anticipating going to town being for more money, you’re not gonna get it unless you take some proactive steps. And my first suggestion is that you contact me talent and constant and try and get a claw back in some of the $5 million that they spent that we didn’t need, that they recommended to be spent, that did not have to be spent and failing that you should invite them here to explain the rationale of why they, the strategy that they implemented during that construction.

1:59:12 Thank you Dialogue. I served on the transfer station committee. Right. It was advice you did not listen to. Well, he listen to Dave Ty and he didn’t listen to me.

1:59:28 He listened to the Tellerman Costa.

1:59:36 I listen to him Tell attorneys, Oh, tell Costa Anyone else. Yes. Um, so I just, your comments about the Wellesley Transfer Station, uh, number one, Wellesley doesn’t have traffic pickup in their town. Oh, it’s territorial.

1:59:57 Um, um, Wellesley doesn’t have trash pickup in their town, and I looked at an area photo of it and it looks nothing like a transfer station. They actually have real buildings, you know, they have, um, it’s, it’s just a lot more organized. There’s not, you know, roofs coming off and electrical boxes that are live rundown trailers that have been there for seven years. So that being said, it’s a great, it’s a great thing to look forward to, and I hope that that can happen. Um, but you know, the, the biggest thing is that that trailer can’t take another, it can’t take another winter. I cannot think of Kay in there in a snowstorm, seven year old trailer. So I hope that’s gonna, you know, I I had a real, um, I wrote a letter to the editor and everything thanking the board for making this

2:00:43 decision for my union members. And now I’m hearing, well, it it’s gotta go out to bed or it’s gotta, I what’s happening with the, do we know when the contractor You don’t know when the I, I don’t. So like I said, I don’t have an updated schedule. Uh, but like we’ve said in the past that we’d agreed it to be changed out during construction. Thank you. Uh, actually two meetings in the August meeting you agreed that when the compactor was changed, you would change out And that was all, that’s all during construction. Oh, I thought that you, you had said that was expected to be happening in September, part of Construction. It was, but it isn’t any longer. No, it’s been delayed. It’s still part of the construction, but yeah, I need an updated schedule to know exactly when, so yeah. Okay. So we’re hoping this is before like snowstorms and stuff, right? Yep.

2:01:29 Okay, thank you. Um, so, you know, and the fact that Wellesley handles 28,000 people and you know, it’s such a great place and they have such, you know, I’m, they’ve got a sorting floor number one, so that helps. Um, number two, that just kind of tells you that our poor people are overworked and underpaid. So just thought I’d throw that in there for the employees. You know, it’s great that, that everybody’s happy and thinks the transfer stations running smoothly and these people are doing great. Well, how hard are they working to try to make it like that? No, we we’re really lucky with the employees that we have up there and they’re a really good team and they work really hard. Yeah. So this is just, I mean, the whole thing in Wellesley that’s just shows us, to me, that shows us like, you know, we are fortunate have employees that will work that hard. Yeah. Because they’re doing the work of two people.

2:02:15 Correct. And and that’s really the point is that, you know, we, you know, to, to handle this amount of material and this, the number of hours they work need a much bigger staff up there. And it’s got, you know, I really appreciate all the hard work, but you know, they, they’re, you know, most of ‘em are working six days a week. Yeah. And just one last thing. If you all wanna go to a retirement party, you, you can go to a retirement party together. You just can’t discuss board stuff at that party. You can’t sit in a corner and discuss like the bills for the, the port of public. You can go to someone’s retirement party. You can even go someplace, you know, like public to get an ice cream or whatever. You know, the perception of you sitting here together having ice cream might not be great. But, you know, all this talk about how you can’t go anywhere together.

2:03:02 That’s if you’re at an educational seminar or if you’re at another town meeting that’s showing you slides about mental health, the mental health task force, all three of you can sit there and do that. That’s not against open meeting, but less No, I went to the finance committee meeting all through everyone Was at the town. Uh, yeah, absolutely. But that was posted Not for you. Not for us. Yes. It was, wasn’t it posted? I’d have to take a look depending on the meeting, but some of them are posted and some are not.

2:03:35 Yes. Um, I just want two issues I guess. Uh, one is on, uh, construction. Um, Bob will, You can, Oh, I’m sorry Barbara, but, uh, excuse me. Um, so one of the things is, is priorities. Um, I we’re spending millions of dollars and it doesn’t seem to be very organized. I, I don’t understand what’s the schedule, what’s the priority? You mentioned the trailer, the trailer could be a standalone swap out. I mean, if that’s a, if that’s a big issue, it looks, looks like a piece of trash from, um, that should be out of there. The poor folks that have to live in that thing.

2:04:23 I mean, that could be kind of a standalone. I I just don’t understand it. It’s, it should be a priority. And where is the construction? Uh, who’s driving the train here? For one thing, the architect. The architect call ‘em in. I mean, I have to deal with architects and engineers every day practically. Um, you call ‘em in and say, um, where’s my plan? What’s my budget? What’s the schedule? Um, and let’s go with it. I mean, I, you know, you gotta push these guys, um, a little bit. Um, the same problem over in swamps too. So it’s not just us. I mean, you’re talking a million dollars here. Well, that’s a small project in today’s numbers, unfortunately. Yeah,

2:05:11 but it doesn’t matter. It’s not high priority. Yeah. But you’ve got 20,000, um, clients here basically, uh, that depend upon it. Um, and so, you know, you, you’ve gotta set, set up some priorities on it. Um, that’s one thing on the construction side. Um, and, and I’ll give you a hand, believe me, uh, um, doing swampscott pro bono too on one of their projects, but okay, so that’s one issue. Um, let’s, let’s, if you need a hand call me out and, and I’ll give you a hand with these guys because you’ll, you’ll be jerking around with this thing next summer, um,

2:05:56 or next fall if you don’t get a handle on it. Um, and then the mistake, I understand, um, this overrun is caused reconstruction. It was in the survey of the land itself that somebody made a mistake on the site survey. Either they didn’t go down very far and do the test samplings. I mean, I, somebody should do an investigation on why you’re going over seven mil because somebody made a goof up. I mean, it’s the same situation we did on the library. Okay? No one, no one, um, pulled the geological survey and realized you were building

2:06:43 the library on a swamp. I mean, you know, so somebody’s going to deal with that if it was an architect or a site engineer that screwed that up. He’s got insurance and, and I, and I think there was a lawsuit or you did bring a case against the, whoever was involved in that, um, construction. Um, so you need to follow that, uh, and get, um, some restitution for the town on the bucks on that. Um, and I’m glad to give you a hand with it. Um, the other thing, getting into the sort of the priority, um, and, and maybe this is an agenda thing. Um,

2:07:32 the health department to me means you got the, the, um, the citizens’ health is sort of a priority. I know recycling and transfer station stuff, but the people live and die here. And you folks are sort of the health gurus for the town. Here’s a question, um, you know, substance abuse, we have, we have nurses in every school. What’s the, what’s the connection? Do you lay liaison with the school nurses? They’re supposed to be responsible for teaching health, substance abuse, education, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Um,

2:08:17 I mean, Narcan strips and all of the lifesaving stuff that we got, that’s great. That’s like the horse out of the barn. It’s much easier and cheaper to educate the kids and the citizens and that’s the money we should be spending. Um, and so, so, and the education department, we spend a lot of money on education. Um, what are we teaching the kids? What are the teachers teaching the kids? Um, and, and how effective are we getting our money’s worth for the education in health? And do you guys monitor that? No. I mean, is that one of your mandates? No. Why

2:09:05 We go ‘cause they’re autonomous. You go to school, school committee member in the back row. Okay. So, so you’re saying we don’t talk to each other here. What’s the deal? Do Talk, but they make the decisions about the school department. Yeah, but you guys are responsible for the town’s help. So you Could be recommendations, but it’s their implementation. Well, I mean, doesn’t it make sense for the two of you guys get together? We do. We have the mental health task force where school members, school administrators and counselors sit on the task force and Okay, so who takes the con here? Who’s driving the ship? I mean, uh, so who’s, Who’s bringing Chris Hern in? Is it the board of health or it’s the PCO o No, the, yeah, so the school department,

2:09:51 so through Gina Hart and the P C O is bringing Chris Herron in, and then the Townside is bringing Chris Hering in at nighttime

2:10:01 Pcos. The her Sharon. Yeah. Mr. Seafood Parents. Okay. And, and, and maybe some of that, um, you know, if you expand the board, which is probably a good deal, um, I mean it would be a smart idea. Then you can split up some of the stuff. Because lemme tell you, in a construction project, you’re going to want to monitor, this is where the library project, not this one, but the one before, they weren’t monitoring what was going on and we paid hundreds of thou, the town paid hundreds of thousands of dollars that they shouldn’t have paid because no one was monitoring what was going on. So this is some big bucks that you guys are gonna be spending. So you want to make sure that, you know, you, you, you critique,

2:10:51 uh, these requisitions that have been coming in the town is gonna have to pay. So Yeah, the Architect obviously has, or the Engineers before the town can pay off. Yeah. Let me, let me tell you what happened over there. Not too many people, I think Pat Loja knows the story, but the, the, the architect, that’s why you gotta watch these guys. The architect and the GC were colluding. Okay? And Mr. Loja, who was the town council at the time, found this out. I don’t know if just too many people in this knew about this, but, uh, the librarian knew the building inspector, the former building inspector knew. So you better watch that sort of thing because, um,

2:11:38 who was the town accountant? Snow? I think it was Snow. Bart Snow, sorry. Bart Snow. Bart Snow, yeah. And I went to him and I said, Bart, do you realize that you just paid a requisition that was on the contract? That was the general contractor’s responsibility. So we were paying for the dewatering of that site, the swamp, basically. Okay. That, um, that we shouldn’t have been paying for it. Uh, so that’s the sort of thing you need to really scrutinize a little. We’ve got someone on the, uh, on, on video,

2:12:19 I’m sorry, somebody’s else’s, um, wanna speak to the audience, but he’s been waiting a while. So let’s, uh, uh, Jim, You should be able to mute yourself.

2:12:33 Okay, I think I’m unmuted. Yep. Okay, Jim, uh, Sen two Mound Road. I just wanted to, um, couple notes about going to the five member board. Totally support it. Um, and, um, it will have to go to the State House. I can tell you that, which is fine. If Jenny’s still there, she’ll help you out with that. One thing I would suggest though, is you may want to consider, rather than having the Board of Health be the official sponsor, you may want to have a, a, a second party like the select board. Um, do it. Because at the end of the day, I, I, you have the most altruistic reasons for doing it. I agree. But it could be viewed as a political or self-serving by some people.

2:13:18 And if you have just say the select board sponsor it, I think that would be a better look. Um, I would at least talk to maybe Jack Ridge, so Aaron Newan about it. I, I might be over the top of it, but I wanna see this pass. And I, I just think that would be, um, you, you know, a better look that that doesn’t mean any one of you three can speak to it, um, um, at town meeting and it would be fine. But just if it’s sponsored by the select what it might be better. And the way I look at, let’s just pretend you are a five member board and someone said, let’s go to three. You know, you could see that would be, someone would say, well, they’re just trying to knock people off the board or do that. And I just think it would be a cleaner walk, but something to think about because I wanna see it pass and, uh, go from there.

2:14:05 So good luck with it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your thoughts.

2:14:19 Hi, Megan Sweeney. Uh, you can un unmute yourself. Hi, thank you very much. Um, hi, my name is Megan Sweeney and I live on Beacon Street. I don’t know if you guys need that or not. I’m here as a leader and representative of Power Up and in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness month, which is October. Um, on October 23rd, we are gonna gather stakeholders and partners to review and understand, um, marblehead systems of support for both domestic and sexual violence survivors. We are honored to be partnering with Hawk, the Y W C a North Shore Rape Crisis Center,

2:15:04 and a trauma-informed practitioner, um, called Body Science, along with Tom McMahon, who you guys might know. Uh, chief Dentist, detective and Sarah Fox, uh, chair of the school committee are all gonna be in attendance. And, uh, the Star of the Sea has graciously offered their conference room for us. So we’re gonna meet in person and, and just the idea is to bring all of these people together, all these community sort of touch points together in one place to share ideas and identify opportunities to expand the access to care for domestic and sexual violence survivors. And I just wanted, or we wanted to let the Board of Health know, uh, that we’re doing this. Uh, the event is October 23rd from six to 8:00 PM and it’ll be at

2:15:54 Star of the Sea, uh, community Center. And if you want more information, feel free to email me, but I just wanted to, to let all of you know. Thanks very much. Thank you. Free with that information. That’s important.

2:16:12 Te oh, see, Tega Segan,

2:16:16 you should be able to unmute yourself.

2:16:22 Did that work? Yep. Terrace Gee, 32 Rowland Street. Um, I just, I would like to request that we have more frequent Board of Health meetings, um, to avoid these marathon meetings that are going to, you know, 10 o’clock at night almost. Um, I would also, I’d love to see them start at 6 37 at night. Um, I mean, I, I’m glad I was able to make this meeting this evening. Um, I also would like to echo the, the sentiment that, uh, Lainey had regarding having the Narcan, uh, test strips more accessible. Uh, I think that’s really important. Um, you know, if we’re gonna go as far as we did,

2:17:08 it shouldn’t be hard for people to find these test strips.

2:17:16 That’s really all I have. Thank you for that.

2:17:21 Thank you. Thank you. Any anyone else in the audience?

2:17:28 Thank you. Um, it is Ken. A 10. A motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor. Thank you for coming everyone.